• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1987-10-01_Vol53_No08_03

Perspectives The Western Carolinian Page - 3 Thursday, October 1, 1987 Quote Of The Week It is easier to fight for principles than to live up to them Alfred Adler A The Port Bow ON INTERPRETATION AND ROBERT BORK J By JOHN DEVILLE SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR We have become the victims of compartmentalizing forces which use oversimplification as a sidearm. We are taught in grade and high school the division of federal powers as they relate the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. You probably remember the accompanying graphic using stick figures: "Legislative branch makes the laws, executive branch enforces the laws, and the judicial branch interprets them." Such schooling creates the illusion in the students' minds that "makes", "enforces", and "interprets" are unrelated verbs that people do to laws. The same illusion allows for Supreme Court Justice nominee Robert Bork to create confusion about what is at stake in the current confirmation hearings. A good example of the lack of innocence surrounding interpretation is President Reagan's current "interpretation" over the War Powers Act. A post- Vietnam bill passed by Congress, the act is designed to prevent the president from launching major military aggression against a foreign power without first notifying Congress. So far the Reagan administration has been questioned as to it's adherence to the War Powers Act in the instances of Lebanon, Grenada, and now in the Persian Gulf. Reagan claims he's acting under "executive authority", the Congress claims he's usurping legislative authority. Sounds like a case for the Supreme Court. Don't worry though. All they do in that big white building is interpret. The robes and stern faces are just for show. If you think Bork's supporters from multinational corporations who see reversal of anti-trust legislation at the end of a Bork-lit tunnel believe that interpretation is the same from one person to another, you may have another thing coming. That being members from anti-choice groups- union-busting groups, anti-civil rights groups, all literate enough to read Bork's previous decisions and writings, who believe as well that a Bork confirmation will make a difference. Letters To The Editor Regarding your Sept. 10 article on the frat rushes and the fraternities claims that they hope to instill a sense of leadership and responsibility in their members. Might I make a suggestion? Our campus, their houses and our homes, are located in one of the most beautiful areas of the state if not the country. Perhaps the fraternities are blinded by the brilliance attributable to their 800 SAT scores and 2.00 GPA's and don't see the earth and its fragile beauty or maybe they just don't care. I opt for the later, or so it seems. River Road has apparently become a dumping ground for the fraternities and their guest. Perhpa's I am being hasty. The yards of the houses are cleaned, mowed and maintained (within 48 hours of a party anyway). It may be that people traveling River Road just indiscriminately toss their beer cups, beer cans, empty case boxes, and fast food refuse along the road around the houses. My suggestion? Let one of those pledge committees police their areas. If someone else should have made the mess that shouldn't excuse any of us from the responsibility of keeping our landscape clean. Sincerely, J.C. Phillips WHY WORLD HUNGER? By BILL MEHLE CATHOLIC CAMPUS MINISTER Although the crisis of global hunger is not front page news lately, it continues to be the daily reality for too many of our brothers and sisters. Every 60 seconds 28 people die from hunger related causes. This shameful reality is the result of human choices - how we have structured our social and economic order, who owns the land and its resources, how and to whom the goods of the earth are made available. Consider some of the facts: FOOD DISTRIBUTION - although currently enough food is being produced to feed everyone, 70% of the world's people consume only 10% of the world's resources. PRIMARY HEALTH CARE - 40,000 children die each day. This could be reduced by half with immunization, breastfeeding, growth monitoring, and prevention of diarrhea. WATER RESOURCES - the lack of clean drinking water and sanitary waste disposal contribute dramatically to diarrheal diseases, the major cause of infant mortality. POPULATION GROWTH - Drastic growth in the populations of the poorer countries is outdistancing the availability of resources. However, the way to battle population growth is through development. As long as children remain the pri mary source of economic security for parents, family size will remain large. LAND OWNERSHIP - 4% of the world's landowners control one-half of the world's cropland. EMPLOYMENT - 350 million people we can each be part of the answer... or part of the problem. are jobless. REFUGEES - war and political turmoil keep an estimated 15 million people on the move. WOMEN/PARITY - women work two- thirds of the world's working hours, make 10% of the world's income and own 1% of the world's property. DEBT CRISIS - interest payments to first world and international lending agencies consume one-fourth of export earnings of developing countries. MILITARIZATION - the cost of feeding, clothing, sheltering, and providing basic health care for every person on earth is spent globally on armaments about every two weeks. The problem of global hunger is massive and multi-faceted. It is crucial for us to keep in mind though, that behind the statistics are human faces and life stories. The problem will not be solved overnight, but each of us can do something. We make significant choices each day which contribute to the problem or the solution - what we eat, how we make and spend our money, etc. Do we consider these pressing global needs as we make decisions which shape our lifestyle and career goals? The CROP WALK for world hunger is Sunday, October 11, sponsored by United Campus Ministry. We hope to raise $5,000 for Church World Service to use in developmental assistance and emergency relief care. Perhaps more important than the money raised will be the focusing of the expected 200 participants' minds and hearts on the reality that too many persons lack that which is necessary to live with dignity. Each of us can make a difference. If you would What About Giving Us Some Time To Decide? By CHRIS GEIS In her book "Ferraro," Geraldine Ferraro.the 1984 Democratic vice presidential nominee, describes all the screening she had to go through before Walter Mondale, the Democratic nominee, chose her to run with him that year. After Mondale had chosen Ferraro but before he had made the news public, members of Mondale's campaign staff visited the congresswoman in New York to check her past history and determine if she would be an acceptable candidate. Ferraro was asked, she said, if there was anything in her background, such as run- ins with the law or maybe pscyhological problems in the family, that would embarrass the Democratic ticket during the campaign if she were chosen to run with Mondale. Mondale's staff went over her life history thoroughly, she said, as well as her family's finances, and they found she didn't have any skeletons in her closet and would be an acceptable candidate. Of course, Ferraro did prove to have a major problem that the Mondale men overlooked, and that was her husband's shady business dealings and financial record keeping. Ferraro was brought down in the '84 campaign by media revelations of these integrity-related things, and it surely didn't help the Democractic campgain effort that year. Recently, a couple of Democratic presidential candidates have withdrawn from the race for the party's 1988 nomination because of media revelations that resulted in questions of their integrity. Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware withdrew last week after he had admitted the week before that he had been accused of plagiarism while a first- year law student at Syracuse University. After a press conference in which Biden acknowledged that he had made an unintentional mistake while in law schol. The Washington Post printed his report card from Syracuse, with full graphics showing which class he had been accused of plagiarizing in and what his grades were in the class. Reports also leaked to The New York Times, Des Moines (Iowa) Register and Newsweek magazine that Biden had used borrowed political speeches from others without giving credit to these politicians when he used them on several occassions. CThere were other times when he did give credit to the politicians from whom he borrowed material). All of this resulted in Biden giving in last week and saying he could no longer run for President because of the integrity and character questions. Biden announced his with- drawl the day after a poll conducted by The New York Times found that his unfavorable rating among a demographic sampling of some 800 or so adults had gone up substantially. In May, Gary Hart, the front runner for the Democratic nomination, withdrew on a Friday after The Miami Herald had reported on a Sunday that he had possibly spent the night with a Miami model named Donna Rice. The Herald had gotten a tip and fol lowed Rice on a flight from Miami to Washington, then staked out Hart's townhouse in Washington with a couple of reporters over the weekend. Hart admitted his mistake too but denied any impropriety, and he vowed to continue his candidacy. But under a crunch from the media that was highlighted by a Washington Post reporter asking him, "Have you ever committed adultery?". Hart decided that he could no longer put himself through the personal scrutiny of running for President. In light of these recent events, we can only guess how future meetings like the one that possible candidate Ferraro had will go. "O.K.," the campaign strategist says to the possible candidate, "let's make sure you can stand up to the media scrutiny you'll get. Let's check your background. Ah-ah, what do we have here? Failed gym class in third grade, huh? Why is this?" "Well," the canidate replies, "I never brought my gym shorts to school the days we had gym." "You what? What kind of personal character is that? You're political history, my friend. Outta here." The next potential candidate is brought in. "Looks good," says the strategist. "All A's and B's throughout your academic history. Nice. Never cheated or plagiarized, did you?" "Of course not," the candidate answers. "Academic record looks good. Now what about your sex life?" "Excuse me?" "Your sex life? The media will have to know about that. Remember Gary Hart in '87? O.K., spill it." "Well, when I was in ninth grade I did have this girl over to my house to play spin the bottle when my parents were out of town one weekend?" "What? You'll never make it! No personal integrity. Next candidate. ..." Of course, such speculation may be taking it a bit too far, but my question is: What has happened to us? Why are we losing good men (and women, in this case of Representative Pat Schroeder) who might want to be our President? Already, Governor Mario Cuomo of New York, Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia and other qualified and attractive potential presidential candidates have said they won't run because there's too much involved in campaigning for the job and because of the media scrutiny involved. What has the media done to our system of selecting a President? Its over-exposure of the system has made candidates media and television sensations almost overnight in some instances, and thus created front-runner candidates who, because they look good in 20- second TV spots, have a real chance of getting into the White House. And its personal scrutiny of candiates, as in the Hart case, has reached an all-time low. There's no admitting that Biden and Hart made mistakes. But should it be the media which ends or even creates their candidacies? Why not let the candidats be judged where they should be — at the ballot box? If they're bums, the voters will probably see so. But if the voters can see through the media clouds that hang over them, they might see something that makes them, in their estimations, a potentially good President. I think Gary Hart and Joe Biden — mistakes accepted — would have been good Presidents, good candidates. They at least added something to the race. There was once a time when the office sought the man. That was the way George Washington thought the system should be, and it wasn't until 1896 that a candidate — William Jennings Bryan — went out and sought the office by campaigning for it in public. No longer is that the case. That I can accept. What disturbs me, and what should disturb all of us, is the intrus ion of overnight candidacies, created and destroyed ones. We as voters probably needed a little bit more time to judge Hart and Biden, weighing their mistakes with their positive points and making a decision from there. Wouldn't it have been nice if we had gotten the chance? rhe Western Carolinian Western Carolinian University The Old Student Union P.O. Box 66 Cullowhee, NC 28723 (704) 227-7267 Erin H. Millner Editor Carole Trantham Business Manager Associate Editors Mary Ellen Fleming News Martha McAfee ..Arts, Entertainment & People Chris Geis Sports Photographers Edwin Carlton Jeff Battle Writers Lisa Bristol Steve Almasy Nancy Bryant Edward Watson Lora Hooper Mark Weaver Mike Thompson Typist Bob Bohl Kim Morris Beth Mercer Mike Ward Layout Sandy Delmont Kirk Nelson Ad Sales Kara Wykle Distribution Jim Crawford Special Assistants To The Editor Scot Stalmasek To The Business Mgr. Kristina Gentile The Western Carolinian is published weekly by the Publication Board of Western Carolina University. It is an independent student publicatioi i that receives its funding through student activity fe and advertising. Subscriptions are available at $16 per year. The Western Carolinian is printed at the Waynesville Mountaineer, Waynesville, N.C.

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 1987-10-01
  • Date digitized: 2019-04-11
• Extent
  • Dimension: 22.75" x 15"
  • Pages: 12 pages
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1987-10-01_Vol53_No08
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library