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8/2/2019 Spring Issue 4 Last Draft

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2/20

2 MAY2012

THE FACTS ABOUT

RISING GAS PRICES

Dear Readers,

The stakes or voting in this primary

are high, and in this issue we look

into some o the reasons why you

should get out and vote on May 8th

election.

Students should vote or the tran-

sit tax because Raleigh-Durham-Cha-

pel Hill area is the largest metropoli-

tan area that doesnt have a light-rail

transit system and were expected to

double in size by 2030, said Student

Body President Will Leimenstoll. In

Chapel Hill, were such a walkable

city but the rest o the region is not

very accessible or students, espe-

cially ones who do not have cars.

In this issue, we explore how North

Carolina might oer online voter reg-

istration and its potential impacts

on voting, as well as the importance

o civics education and encourag-

ing voting in North Carolina. We also

prole o the coalition mobilizing

against Amendment One, a cause or

equality regardless o sexuality that

is more than worth the trip to the

new on-campus early voting site in

Rams Head Dining Hall, second oor,open rom April 23-28 and April 30 -

May 5.

Happy reading!

Chelsea Phipps

Editor-in-Chie

FROM THE EDITOR

CONTENTS

On the Cover: Most Important Meal

o the Day, by Asia Morris

chelseaphippseditor-in-chief

sarahbufkinassistanteditor

gracetatter, wilsonparkermanagingeditors

careyhanlincreativedirector

carijeffries, tylertranphotoeditors

michaeldickson, hayleyfahey, mollyhrudka, carey

hanlin, akhiljariwala, audreyannlavallee, ellen

murray, rachelmyrick, jennifernowicki, wilson

parker, libbyrodenbough, ludashtessel, gracetatter, nehaverma, kylevillemain, petervogel,

kellyyahnerstaffwriters

cassiemcmillan, jasminelamb, janiesircey,

paigewarmusproductionanddesign

annebrenneman, michaeldickson, mollyhrudka,

carijeffries, careyhanlin, wilsonhood, molly

hrudka, gracetatter, petervogel, kellyyahner

copyeditors

katiecoleman, gihanidissanayake, izaakearn-

hardt, sarahhoehn, rodrigomartinez, hannah

nemer, janiesircey, reneesullender, tylertran

photographers

rachelallen, cynthiabetubiza, sarahbrown,

michaeldickson, hayleyfahey, wilsonhood, sam

hughes, akhiljariwalajannajung-irrgang, jen-

nifernowicki, wilsonparker, gracephillips,

sarahrutherford, ellenwerner, akhiljariwala,

nehaverma, bloggers

travisclaytonsocialmediadirector

STAFF

The Bully Problem

Deciding the Race Question

The Facts About Gasoline Prices

Aordable Care Act in the Courts

No Child Le Behind

The NC Eugenics Program

The Real Silent SamAmendment One Activism

Civic Responsibility

Digital Age Voting

Disability in Lebanon

Student Loan Policy

Inhalable Caeine

THE EFFECTS OF THE

NC EUGENICS PROGRAM

STUDENT LOAN POLICY

3

4

5

6

7

8

1012

14

15

16

18

19

08

18

05


3/20

MAY2012 3

30 percent o US students in grades six throug

10 are involved in moderate to requent bully

ing, as bullies, as victims, or as both.

86percent ofint

erviewedteens sa

id school

shootingsaremot

ivatedbyadesiret

ogetback

atthosewhohaveh

urtthem.

282,000 studentsarephysical

attacked in secondary schools

eachmonth.

77percentofstudentsarebulliedmen-

tally,verballyorphysically. Of those,

4percent said they experienced se-

verereactionstotheabuse.

n estimated 100,000 students carry a gun to

school. Twenty-eight percent o youths who

arry weapons have witnessed violence at home.

With the premier o the new docu-

mentary Bully, and the rising de-

e over gay marriage and homosexu-

ty in general, the topic o bullying is

wly becoming more and more dis-ssed in social circles. A belie pervades

ciety today that kids need to toughen

- that they are being coddled, and are

t learning how to cope in the world.

cording to this perspective, bullying is

atural way to make sure they do.

But it isnt. Lets toughen kids by teach-

g them to handle money properly, hav-

g them play baseball instead o Xbox, or

ping them learn to take responsibility

their actions. Bullying doesnt tough-kids up; it singles out their insecuri-

s and exploits them. It teaches kids to

te any nonnormative traits they might

ve. And it nurtures ear and promotes

lence in schools. Lets take it it upon

rselves to teach children to prepare or

e world, and stop bulling and harras-

nt in their tracks.


4/20

4 MAY2012

Aer successully passing through abulk o Jim Crow laws in North Caro-lina in 1900, Gov. Charles Aycock ended

o words o congratulation, saying, Each

new generation will have to decide them-

selves an answer to the race question,

and each will decide it dierently. And

so while the Civil Rights Movement o

the 1960s spelled the end or the violent

white supremacy o the Jim Crow South,it doesnt mean that race aded as a nor-

mative issue rom the social conscious-

ness. Instead, the rise o the New Right

also heralded the transition into a new

orm o white supremacyone ground-

ed in unconscious and structural racism

and concealed behind a race-neutral dis-

course.

Hindsight is 20:20, and today its easy

to trace how the Civil Rights Movement

and its various orms o backlash had

turned the whole structure o politics

on a ulcrum o color, writes Pulitzer-

Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch.

The coalition o interests that is the New

Right began to rear its head during the

1964 election and today it has arguably

reached its maturity. The Deep South

votes almost exclusively Republican, and

the race-neutral narrative has permeated

our society to such an extent that the U.S.

Supreme Court is revisiting the constitu-

tionality o afrmative action programs in

higher education this year.

But the New Right could not have

survived this longand with this much

successi it merely painted a veneer o

racial respectability onto a segregation-ist platorm. Instead, a wide spectrum o

people identiy with its perspective, rang-

ing rom soccer moms to corporate Amer-

ica. The American Legislative Exchange

Council has drawn increasing attention

rom the media and various liberal move-

ments as a corporate ront-group that

dras model legislative bills in line with

its policies and its business interests or

state lawmakers. One such bill, tellingly-

labeled the Civil Rights Act, states, The

civil rights achievements o the 1960s

were designed to ensure that all citizens

are treated in a race- and gender-neutral

ashion. Its main provision? Eliminating

any sort o afrmative action program.

The subtle power o todays racism per-

meates the day-to-day, lived experience

o the average American. Although grand

statements about racial equality sound

good and well, the real issues that keep

parents up at night are whether or not

their children are receiving the best edu-

cation and whether or not they will still

have a job next month. Afrmative action

becomes the college admission spot that

will be withheld rom your daughter in a-

vor o a black student who did not work

as hard; it becomes the job that you did

not get because the ofce needed more

diversity. Thus, race-conscious policies ap-

pear as i they are merely giving an unair

advantage to minorities over whites.

To counter this narrative, the Le

needs to make clear how much todays

social structures unairly prop up white

advantage. We need to give greater con-

text to the American myth o the individ-

ual climbing the socioeconomic ladderthrough the strength o his or her own

work ethic. Today, Pakistan is home to

greater social mobility than the United

States; a 2004 study calculated that 50

percent o an Americans wealth is based

on his or her genetic inheritance. Yet as

Timothy Noah notes in The New Republic,

Americans are less likely to believe that

their chance o nancial success depends

on their parents incomes (42 percent)

than are Canadians (57 percent), even

though Canadian society is up to three

times more socioeconomically mobile

than our own.

And this lack o mobility is clearly

skewed against black amilies: In 1984,

white households had 12 times the

wealth o black households. Today,

based on the latest Pew study, released

in 2011, median white wealth is now close

to 20 times that o black households, the

highest since the survey began, writes

Isabel Wilkerson in the March 1 edition o

The New Republic. Until Americans come

to terms with the act that our society

is still structured to benet whites over

blacks, we will not be able to approach

the race question with anything close to

conviction.

WHY HAVING HONEST CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RACE MATTERS

SARAH BUFKIN

DECIDING THE RACE QUESTION

FOR ANOTHER GENERATION:


5/20

MAY2012 5

$3.89 or a gallon.

At that price you might think you were

buying milk rom the grocery store, but its

actually the price o gasoline in the state o

North Carolina, an amount which has risen

$0.70 in the last our months. Conservative

pundits have blamed the president or ail-

ing to keep gasoline prices stable. But what

really dictates oil prices? And what roles do

oshore drilling, the Keystone XL pipeline,

biouels and Obama really play?

Below are several common misconcep-tions about the oil market.

Boosting oshore drilling and drill-

ing on ederal lands would alleviate

high gas prices.

Ramping up drilling operations is a red

herring. Seventy-two percent o the price o

gasoline is based on the price o crude oil.

The rest is split among taxes, rening and dis-

tribution. Crude oil is a commodity traded on

the global marketplace, which means that ithas a truly world price. Even i the U.S. were

to suddenly exploit all o its ecosystems in

order to suck black gold rom the depths o

the Earth, a surge in domestic oil production

would have a negligible eect on global oil

prices because the U.S. only produces less

than nine percent o global oil production.

The inow o crude oil rom the Key-

stone XL pipeline would make gas

cheaper at the pump.The Keystone XL pipeline, which will con-

nect Albertas tar sands with Gul Coast ren-

eries, has been touted by Republicans as the

ultimate savior or gasoline prices. However,

a bottleneck o crude oil transportation to

Gul reneries rom the Midwest has had

the opposite eect, causing a glut o surplus

MISCONCEPTION IN THE MARKET:SEPARATING FICTION FROM FACT FOR VOLATILE GASOLINE PRICES

crude oil that has actually depressed gasprices there. The Keystone XL pipeline aims

to provide record prots to Transcanada by

connecting the center o this surplus (Cush-

ing, Oklahoma) to reneries in Texas and the

Gul Coast that are in high demand o this

crude, which would raise Midwest gasoline

prices. Transcanada itsel even admitted that

approval o the pipeline would actually raise

American consumers oil expenses to Cana-

da by $4 billion a year.

Obama is to blame or high gas prices.

Republicans may accuse President

Obama o trying to strangle working

Americans into environmental submission

through elevated uel costs, but the truth is

that Obama couldnt raise oil prices even i

he wanted. As mentioned above, approval o

the Keystone pipeline and opening up ed-

eral lands or drilling would hardly aect gas

prices. Interestingly enough, domestic oil

production per year has actually risen everyyear since Obama took ofce, aer alling

eight years straight under Bush. Obamas

one option is to release oil or the Strategic

Petroleum Reserve to hedge against serious

oil shortages. According to Daniel Weiss at

the Center or American Progress, this strat-

egy might be able to reduce gas prices by

$0.24 or several months, but the eect at

best is limited and very risky.

The only way to solve our oil problemis with biouels or electric cars.

While this might be true long-term,

America does not need a massive x or at

least another decade as long as we take

some common-sense efciency steps to

reduce demand or oil. Amory Lovins, one

o the preeminent experts on developing a

clean-energy economy, points out that moreefcient end-use o oil, such as raising CAFE

standards to 54.5 miles per gallon, is worth

our economy the equivalent o $12 per bar-

rel, which is about 10 percent o the price oil

is currently trading at. Savings rom these

improvements could reach $70 billion per

year by 2025, and all o these could be imple-

mented virtually immediately.

What does aect gas prices?

The top actors are state taxes on gaso-

line, rising demand rom India and China

and speculation about geopolitical aairs.

So the next time you cringe as you look at

the ratcheting dial on the gas pump, youll

have a clearer idea why your wallet is being

drained so quickly. Maybe you should be

driving a Prius to the grocery store instead.

AKHIL JARIWALA

Environment


6/20

6 MAY2012

As it appears increasingly likely thatthe Supreme Court will strike downPresident Obamas health care law in

June, the current conservative court is

poised to become one o the most activ-

ist courts in years.

Following three days o oral argu-

ments beore the Supreme Court, court

watchers have backtracked on their origi-

nal predictions o a strong majority sup-

porting the constitutionality o the indi-

vidual mandate and the health care law.

Many are now orecasting a 5-4 majority

overturning the mandate.

The turn o events has led many liberal

commentators and politicians, including

President Obama, to warn against what

they see as a potential overstep by the

Court, led by conservative justice John

Roberts.

Id just remind conservative commen-

tators that or years, what weve heard

is, the biggest problem on the bench

was judicial activism or a lack o judicial

restraint that an unelected group o

people would somehow overturn a duly

constituted and passed law, Obama said

at a news conerence April 2, reerencing

conservatives long-held complaints o

liberal activism by the court system.For many legal analysts, the growing

judicial activism o the Roberts court is

shown in decisions like Citizens United.

The well-known New Yorker legal writer,

Jeery Toobin, cited the case as he paint-

ed a picture o a highly political, activist

Court in a recent article ollowing the oral

arguments.

Now the Supreme Court acts as a

sort o supra-legislature, dismissing laws

that conict with its own political agen-

da, Toobin writes. This was most evident

in the 2010 case Citizens United v. Federal

Elections Commission, when the ve-

Justice majority eviscerated the McCain-

Feingold campaign-nance law (not to

mention several o its own precedents).

The ate o Obamas health care law,

however, has yet to be decided and the

precedents that led court watchers to

predict a ruling in avor o the law still ex-

ist.

Michael Gerhardt, he Director o UNCsCenter or Law and Government, agrees

that the case is ar rom decided, and

pointed to the recent Supreme Court

decisions Gonzales v. Raich and United

States v. Comstock as examples o prec-

edents that could persuade a swing vote

to uphold the health care law.

There is denitely a potential h

vote rom Justice Kennedy, Gerhardt

wrote in an email. In Comstock, the Court

also expressed, as it did in Raich, enor-

mous deerence to a ederal law based

on Congress exercise o its powers un-

der the Necessary and Proper Clause and

Commerce Clause. The law in this case is

based on a similar combination o pow-

ers.

The three days o harsh questioning

rom the ve conservative justices (really

ourJustice Thomas, as usual , asked no

questions), prompted court watchers to

issue grim warnings over the ate o the

health care bill, but may not be truly re-ective o the Courts current position.

We should remember that the jus-

tices understood that whatever they said

in the arguments would be made public,

so that most i not all o them were prob-

ably asking questions with the likely pub-

lic ramications or their images in mind,

Gerhardt said.

KYLE VILLEMAIN

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

IN THE COURTS:

DEBATING THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF

OBAMACARES INDIVIDUAL MANDATE

PHOTOFROM

THEWHITEHOUSEWEBSITE

President Obama greets doctors and nurses after signing the Affordable Care Act.

Health

PH

OTOFROM

THEWHITE

HO

USEWEBSITE


7/20

MAY2012 7

Ten years ago, in 2002, Avril Lavigne was

cool, CDs trumped iPods and most o to-

days undergraduates were under ve eet

tall and just starting to read chapter books.

The same year, President George W.

Bush signed the No Child Le Behind Act

into law. The act redened the K-12 experi-

ence by ocusing on testing, school choice

and accountability and subjects such as

technology, math and literacy.

But although the tenth anniversary o

the law caused many to question its im-

pact on test scores, ew have paused to

asked about its eect on the very children

it meant to protect many o whom have

grown up and are now in college.

Academics and researchers have long

bemoaned how No Child Le Behind al-

tered the way American students were

taught, saying that it overemphasized

standardized tests and le little room or

creative curriculums and lesson plans tai-

lored to the specic needs o students.

But no one has investigated the eects

on students, said UNC Public Policy proes-

sor Douglas Lauen. Did more students who

were in elementary school in 2002, when

the law was implemented, go to college

as was promised? Were nearly all students

le behind in areas like critical thinking

skills and meaningul learning skills, as

ormer Assistant Secretary o Education Di-

ane Ravitch promised would happen in her

2007 condemnation o the law?

Many critics have attacked the act or

dumbing down schools. So, that begs

the question: are todays undergraduates

dumber?

What the law promised

In a September 2002 government re-

port, then-Secretary o Education Rod Paige

described how, with the enactment o No

Child Le Behind, the nation was embark-

ing on a new era o how we educate our

children. The report announced the law

would change the culture o American

education.

And indeed it did. According to the 2002

report, the law which was passed with

overwhelming bipartisan support had

our main principles: to increase account-

ability o schools and states; to increase

states power in how they spend education

unds; to give parents rom disadvantaged

backgrounds more choices or their chil-

dren and to emphasize teaching methods

that work. Additionally, the law promised

to enhance the quality o teaching and to

ensure all American students learn English.

So, in theory, students who grew up

under the law should have had better

teachers and higher literacy skills. More

shouldve gone to higher-quality schools

chosen by their parents rather than low-

perorming neighborhood schools. Minori-

ties and disadvantaged groups should be

better represented in universities like UNC-

Chapel Hill.

Learning how to learn

But despite the overwhelming biparti-

san support or the law, critics in 2002 im-

mediately warned the public this wouldnt

happen and have continued to do so

throughout the past decade.

Kristen Stephens, an assistant proes-

sor o education at Duke University, ex-

plained the pitalls o the law in an e-mail.

One o the most overwhelming criticisms

o the law has been how its changed the

way teachers teach and thereore, how

its changed the way students learn.

Beore NCLB, teachers engaged their

students in project-based learning, which

aorded students the opportunity to en-

gage with content on a deeper level, prac-

tice critical skills and immediately apply

what they were learning in a meaningul

context, she said. Following NCLB, teach-

ers abandoned such learning experiences

and resorted to a more drill or kill mental-

ity.

Stephens said that in her research, she

has ound most teachers eel they are be-

ing orced to reject the methods they know

work best and that this has adversely a-

ected students. She said she notices a di-

erence in the undergraduates she teaches

at Duke.

I think it is more difcult to get stu-

dents to think creatively and respond to

open-ended questions or which there is

no, one right answer, she said. It seems

a test-driven society conditions students

to expect that teachers are shing or a

single, correct response rather than asking

questions or the purpose o exploring vari-

ous perspectives, thinking critically about

the issues and ollowing [or] pursuing wild

hunches.

Policymakers and academics have also

charged the law by lowering academic

standards in order to create the illusion

that more students are procient than ac-

tually are. In a 2007 Wall Street Journal edi-

torial, C.E. Finn, president o the Fordham

Institute, said the law dumbed education

down and caused problems or students

in middle school, who were unprepared

because o the low bar set by No Child Le

Behind standards in elementary school.

Additionally, a literature review done by

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND:THE EFFECT ON TODAYS UNDERGRADUATESGRACE TATTER


8/20

8 MAY2012

Tenielli Trolan, a PhD candidate at the Uni-

versity o Iowa, and Kristin S. Fouts o the

University o Western Michigan, suggested

that the many cheating scandals associat-

ed with No Child Le Behind-mandated ex-

ams could aect the moral development

o students.

Eects o NCLB hidden at UNCFor all the criticisms o No Child Le

Behind, a study by Lauen showed that

the legislation raised minority students

achievement. But this has not necessarily

translated into more diverse universities

at least not at UNC-Chapel Hill. The num-

ber o admitted Arican-American students

actually dropped slightly rom the all o

2006 to the all o 2010, when students

would have been more aected by No

Child Le Behind.Proessor John Kasson, who has taught

in the history department or more than 40

years, said he has not noticed a dierence

in his students who grew up with NCLB,

but suggested that the eects o the law

could be seen more clearly elsewhere.

We cant measure the eect o No Child

Le Behind with undergraduates here be-

cause o our admissions results, he said.

UNC is not a good index o general educa-

tion.

The impact

Race to the Top and No Child Le Be-

hind waivers promise to change K-12 edu-

cation yet again. But it might be too late or

those who were raised under the measure.

We need learners who can nd the

questions that need to be answered rather

than learners who can answer questions

or which there are already known an-

swers, Stephen said. Only then can we

produce innovators.

But, Stephens said, those are not the

skills that have been taught in public

schools or the past decade. Perhaps more

research should be done to determine i

we were the children who got le behind.

P

regnant aer being raped at the

age o ourteen, Elaine Riddick en-

tered an Edenton hospital in 1968 to

give birth to her son. During the C-sec-

tion procedure, doctors sterilized her

without her knowledge.

The Eugenics Board o North Caro-

lina had concluded that Riddick was

eebleminded, promiscuous and

didnt get along well with others.

Aer reading a ew paragraphs about

her lie, the group made the unani-

mous decision that Riddick should be

sterilized.

Between 1929 and 1974, the Eugen-

ics Board o North Carolina authorized

the sterilization o over 7,600 men and

women, targeting the poor, uneducat-

ed and mentally unstable. Some vic-

tims were as young as ten years old.

Riddicks situation warranted much

more than a ew paragraphs o sum-

mary.

My problem was environmental. Icouldnt get along well with others

because I was hungry. I was cold. I

am not eebleminded, I was a victim

o rape, Riddick said through tears

at a hearing beore a state panel last

summer.

Social workers told Riddicks grand-

mother that i she did not sign the

consent orm, Riddick would be taken

to an orphanage. Illiterate and unsure

o what she was signing, Riddicks

grandmother eventually put her X on

the orm, allowing doctors to perorm

the procedure.

They cut me open like I was a hog,

Riddick said.

When she was nineteen, married and

ready to have children, Riddick nally

realized she had been sterilized. She

was orced to deal with the harsh real-

ity o what the state had done to her.

And unortunately, Riddicks story is ar

rom rare.

At the time, the state viewed steril-

ization as a way to limit the public cost

o welare.

They knew their reasons were

wrong, but they ound ways to justiy

their wrongs, their wickedness, their

cowardliness, Riddicks son, Tony, said

at the hearing.

In 1974, the Eugenics Board was or-mally disbanded, and ormer North

Carolina Governor Mike Easley issued

a ormal apology in 2002. He called

sterilization a regrettable issue and

told victims that we will not orget

what they have endured.

But Gov. Beverly Perdue has taken an

unprecedented step urther.

NEHA VERMA

COMPASSION

THE AFTERMATH OF THE

NC EUGENICS PROGRAMTO ACTION


9/20

MAY2012 9

In 2010, Governor Perdue established

the Justice or Sterilization Victims

Foundation, and in 2011, she appointed

a ve-member Eugenics Compensation

Task Force, consisting o a ormer judge,

a historian, a ormer journalist, a physi-

cian and an attorney.

Victims have courageously stepped

orward to tell their stories and their

courage has inspired

more people, Char-

maine Fuller Cooper,

executive director o

the Foundation, said.

So ar, the Foundation

has received more

than 1,300 phone in-

quiries.

The number o veried sterilization

victims is rising more than 100 people

have been matched to state records

and others are still coming orward.

North Carolina was not the only state

with eugenics laws, but its practiceswere particularly extreme.

North Carolina operated the most

aggressive eugenics program in the na-

tion, sterilizing the majority o its pro-

gram victims aer World War II and the

Holocaust, Cooper said.

In January, the Task Force recommend-

ed providing a $50,000 payment and

mental health services to each victim o

sterilization, the creation o travelling

eugenics exhibits and the continuation

o the Justice or Sterilization Victims

Foundation.

I am putting together the compen-

sation plan or inclusion in my budget,

and I encourage anyone who believes

they are a victim to contact the Justice

or Sterilization Victims Foundation,

Governor Perdue said in a release.

It was really hard to arrive at a gure,

Phoebe Zerwick, the ormer journalist

on the task orce and a current proes-

sor at Wake Forest, said. We kept hear-

ing rom victims that the amounts wewere suggesting were insultingly low,

yet we needed to propose a value that

would be approved by the legislature

and politically easible.

While the state legislature is respon-

sible or the determination o the nal

type and source o compensation, the

matter has received bipartisan support.

I North Carolina does compensate ster-

ilization victims, it will be the rst state

to do so.

North Carolina state Representative

Larry Womble (D-Forsyth) has been a

key driver in the push or compensa-

tion.

We are the only state in this nation

trying to do something to address this

ugly chapter in history,

Womble said.

North Carolina is at a

position to be a leader in

social justice, setting an

example or other states

to display not only com-

passion, but also action.

And or sterilization victims, that ac-

tion is long overdue.

You are not orgotten, and you will

not be orgotten, Womble has assured

them.

Willis Lynch o Warren County, who

spoke at last summers hearing, wassterilized in 1948 when he was our-

teen years old. For decades, he has

been waiting or the state to amend the

pain it caused him.

Im 77 years old, aint got much time

to live, he told the hearing board. I just

hope I can see something happen.

My problem was environmental. I couldnt

get along well with others because I was

hungry. I was cold. I am not eebleminded, I

was a victim o rape. - Elaine Riddick

PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS


10/20

10 MAY2012

31 2

4

The Real Silent SamBY ZAINA ALSOUS

The Real Silent Sam Coalition gathered on April 4 or an event at the Silent Sam Monument. Held on the anni-versary o the assassination o Dr. King, with the Trayvon Martin and Troy Davis tragedies still serving as reshwounds, we sought to interrogate topics that are too oten repressed at the Universityissues o race, memory, and

welcoming in our own community.

The Real Silent Sam Coalition hopes to promote honest public dialogue and provoke critical thought surround-

ing the monuments and buildings in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Perormance has been a signiicant element o our

movement. By engaging students and community members we seek to make understanding our history a collec-

tive act. With this event, the message o Can You Hear Us Now? draws attention to the struggle o students and

community members o color who eel that their presence is silenced by a monument to a violent racialized past,

while also underscoring resistance to a culture o social amnesia that perpetuates silence rather than critical ques-

tioning, dialogue, and reconciliation.

PHOTOS BY HANNAH NEMER


11/20

MAY2012 11

5 6

7

1) The Real Silent Sam Coalition hopes to increase the

visibility o the untold histories o the University, using

the voices o the coalition to shape a more complete

historical narrative that emphasizes the implications

o Silent Sam or members o the community. Share

your own voice by tweeting about the campaign: #can-

youhearusnow

2) Hoping to create a space or conversation, the Can

You Hear Us Now? event took the orm o a communi-ty dialogue, inviting community members to join with

students in generating a orum or discussion.

3) The Real Silent Sam Coalition meets in ront o the

Silent Sam monument, which eatures a plaque that

makes no mention o the dedication speech in which

the speaker celebratory stated that he had once horse-

whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds

near the monuments campus location. The coalition

seeks to include an additional plaque on Silent Sam

that recognizes the monuments historical context.

4) Students and community members share views on

The Real Silent Sam and the ways in which the Uni-

versity can better address its past race-based injustices.

5) A UNC graduate student returns to campus to con-tribute to the Real Silent Sam Coalitions discussions.

6) Students voice concerns over Silent Sams promi-

nent and oen unquestioned place on campus.

7) Students and community members joined together

to discuss The Real Silent Sam.


12/20

12 MAY2012

In these times o strong partisan poli-tics, it is easy to become disillusionedwith the government and political pro-

cess because o the lack o action in

Washington D.C. But to change this,

hundreds o students across UNC-

Chapel Hills campus are taking action

against Amendment One and are trying

to promote awareness or the upcom-

ing vote.

The amendment reads, Marriage be-

tween one man and one woman is the

only domestic legal union that shall be

valid or recognized in this State.

Amendment One is directed at mar-

riage, but gay marriage is already illegal

in North Carolina, said rst-year Peter

Vogel, chair o the Amendment One

Committee or Young Democrats and a

sta writer or Campus BluePrint. I this

amendment is deeated, things dont

get better or those people in North

Carolina, they just dont get worse.

Young Democrats are among many

campus groups mobilizing against the

amendment.

[Young Democrats] has a multi-tiered

strategy that was initially ocused oneducation, Vogel said. We transitioned

rom education to voter registration,

and in a ew weeks well transition

again to a get out the vote phase.

As many as 200 new voters registered

in a recent week, but Vogel says that

the Young Democrats will continue en-

couraging students on and o campus

to vote.

Recently, a multitude o bright yel-

low shirts advocating against Amend-

ment One have been visible on UNC

Chapel Hills campus. Sophomore Josh

Orol, who has been working with the

Campus Y Coalition Against Amendment

One, ordered shirts with anti-amend-

ment text.

Any students or adults can go and

meet once a week with the coalition to

plan or dierent initiatives, he said.

Initiatives include developing rela-

tionships with political parties and

NGOs, registering voters in the pit, can-

vassing and phone banking.

UNC students have also reached to-

ward the arts to raise awareness. Soph-

omore Rachel Kaplan created a 10-min-

ute musical ash mob that perormed

in the pit to raise awareness. A video o

the ash mob, which can be ound on

YouTube, now has almost 2,000 views,

and the video o the original musi-

cal Kaplan wrote now has more than

11,000 views.

On April 11, the UNC Wordsmiths helda poetry slam in the pit to speak out

against Amendment One, and on April

20, beore Relay or Lie, the Campus Y

Coalition will take over the quad with

demonstrators, a capella groups and

other bands.

The easiest thing to do is inormal

campaigning, Vogel said, which is sim-

ply talking to your riends about it.

UNC students are also planning to

voice their opposition in the most tra-

ditional, but ultimately eective way

through the vote. From April 23 to May

A CIVICO P P O R T U N I T Y

Amendment One Inspires UNC-Chapel Hill Students to Become Activists

ELLEN MURRAY

UNC sophomore Madison Scott shows off her

t-shirt advocating against Amendment One.

P H O T O S B Y E L L E N M U R R A Y A N D K A T

I E C O L E M A N


13/20

MAY2012 13

5, students will be able to go to Rams

Head and cast their vote beore the o-

cial vote on May 8.

Anyone can go and vote, Orol said.

Even i you havent registered, you can

do it there.

This upcoming vote is pivotal or the

issue o gay marriage and civil union

rights on a national scale. Twenty-nine

states have already passed amend-

ments similar to Amendment One, and

North Carolina will set the tone or the

our states planning to vote on the is-

sue later this year.

I eel like its one o the major civil

rights issues in this country today,

Orol said.

The amendment will aect many

North Carolinians o all sexual orien-tations. Children o unmarried parents

could lose healthcare, and unmarried

parents o adopted children could have

issues with custody rights. The passage

o Amendment One would also apply

domestic violence protections only to

married couples.

Cases involving accusations o do-

mestic violence take much longer in

this situation, Orol said.

The Coalition to Protect North Caro-

lina Families points out situations in

states like Ohio, where this loophole

has allowed many convictions to be

overturned.

Thus ar, Vogel says the coalition

against the amendment has drawn

rom all sectors o society.

Its something our generation is uni-

ed on, he said. It is an issue that is

not dened by party lines.

A recent poll by Elon University indi-

cates that 60 percent o North Carolina

residents oppose Amendment One,

and that the action taken by students

and citizens across the state is makinga dierence.

Yet another poll released in March

rom Public Policy Polling ound that

58 percent o likely primary voters

planned on voting yes while 38 per-

cent planned on voting no. Given that

results in primaries are determined by

dedicated likely voters and not mere

residents, the PPP gures are most

likely more accurate.

But perhaps the most important nd-

ing o the PPP poll was how conused

likely voters are about the amendment.

When inormed that Amendement One

would ban civil unions, support or the

amendment plummets rom 58 per-

cent to just 41 percent.

UNC senior Je Deluca, a leader o

the the Coalition Against Amendment

One, hopes that the Elon poll captures

a more inormed ballot but stresses

that when voters know the true con-

tents o the Amendment, they reject

it. For Deluca, Orol, and the rest o the

millennial generation, now is the time

or action.Im going to stand up and scream

my head o, Orol said, because this is

whats important right now. More im-

portant than my homework, my class-

esthis can make a real impact.

A crowd of UNC students gather in the pit in a rally against Amendment One.


14/20

14 MAY2012

In light o long-running trends and re-

cent events, no logical debater would

argue against the act that Americans in

general could use a good dose o politi-

cal knowledge and civic re-

sponsibility. National voter

turnout is just barely more

than 50 percent or presi-

dential elections. Public mis-

conceptions o government

ofces and powers dictate

campaigns and lead candi-

dates to blatantly misrepre-

sent political principles and structures.

And a horriying number o Americans

apparently know more American Idol

judges than they do First Amendment

rights.

The obvious solution is a month-long

remedial civics course or all Americans,

to be administered by the long-margin-

alized minority that is high school civ-

ics teachers. Think o it as goal-orientedpoetic justice.

Thats not easible, you say? That

would be an egregious waste o tax-

payer money, you say? You hated your

high school civics teacher more than

you hate bird poop or hospital ood,

you say?

Well, youd be right, although you cant

MICHAEL DICKSON

This shit in teaching methods may

require an inordinate amount o eort

to pull o uniormly and properly,

but our civics education warrants and

demands more than just a quick x.

POLITICAL LITERACY AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY AS THE

FRAGILE CORE OF DEMOCRATIC LIFE

REIMAGINING CIVICS EDUCATION:

speak or everyone. We cant put up-

ward o 200 million voting-age citizens

in classrooms or a month and make

them memorize constitutional amend-

ments or teach them which powers the

president actually has, no matter how

much we may want to.

What we can do, however, is set up the

next generation to be a little bit more

prepared, engaged and aware. Our civ-

ics programs as they currently operate

are obviously not working, and political

literacy in high school has been declin-

ing, according to the National Assess-

ment o Educational Progress.

Fortunately or us, the path to reorm

has already been marked. The answer,

beyond a simple re-prioritizing o civics

within the educational system, is what

is being called action civics, or the

more targeted idea o digital citizen-

ship suggested by the Education Com-

mission o the States.These new governmental initiatives

re-evaluate the traditional civics educa-

tion, moving the ocus away rom the

basic knowledge o dates and names

and emphasizing instead an active par-

ticipation and involvement in public is-

sues rom the beginning.

This ull engagement is urther en-

couraged and made possible by the

technological skills o the new gen-

eration. With social media and Inter-

net access, students can immediately

become a part o the public discourse

on issues important to them. Helping

them to nd these issues they care

about opens up their perspective to

the political community around them.

This initial awareness and interest is

needed to set them on the path to civic

engagement and political literacy.

This shi in teaching methods may re-

quire an inordinate amount

o eort to pull o uniormly

and properly, but our civ-

ics education warrants and

demands more than just a

quick x.

This method o getting stu-

dents to act independently

in the political realm can

have tremendous benets or this gen-

eration and the uture. Civic engage-

ment now means civic engagement

later, and action civics is exactly what

we need to create a more socially and

politically conscious wave o youth.

By giving young people this type o

education, we are giving them the tools

and the orientation necessary to be

productive members o this political so-ciety and to work or substantial posi-

tive change in the world. Maybe thats

what we need to shake up the publics

systemic ignorance o the processes

and principles o our political structure

and re-imagine what it means to unc-

tion in democratic life.


15/20

MAY2012 15

Long lines have become a staple o re-cent election cycles, prompting manyto speculate whether online voting or

general elections is in the works. The

concept seems simple enough: instead

o waiting or hours at the end o a

work day at a designated voting sta-

tion, eligible voters would be able to

cast their ballots in the comortand

convenienceo their own homes.

I think online vot-

ing can only help voters

because its so easy, its

something you can ac-

cess rom anywhere in

the world at any time,

especially people living

abroad and the troops,

said Austin Gilmore, president o UNC

Young Democrats.

Rob Weber, a ormer IBM Inor-

mation Technology proessional and

manager o the Cyber the Vote! blog,

agrees with Gilmore.

Online voting increases participa-

tion among younger working voters, agroup that traditionally does not vote

in numbers representative o their de-

mographic. As a result politicians and

elected ofcials oen ignore the needs

and opinions o younger voters, Weber

said.

Yet serious concerns remain over

how secure and reliable online voting

can be, especially in a large general

election with so much at stake. One

such concern is the ability o a desig-

nated voting website to handle such

extreme amounts o trafc without re-

gional blackouts, which could seriously

impact overall voting counts.

In February o 2009, Finland experi-

mented with an online voting service

or its general elections, and approxi-

mately two percent o all votes went

missing due to internet glitches. Since

many states in the 2008 presidential

election were decided by relatively

small amounts, including North Caroli-

na, such glitches could be catastrophic.

In act, Finlands highest court ended up

tossing the results o the online votingin avor o a second, paper-based elec-

tion.

Online voting is not transparent,

and i you lose votes, you cant retrieve

them, said Joyce McCloy, author o the

North Carolina ElectionsProtecting

the Vote blog. You dont have the pri-

vacy o the voting booths-- votes arent

anonymously cast, and ballots arent

secret. This means that people can co-

erce you into voting a certain way, you

could sell your votes, or you could be

punished or casting a wrong vote.

Another major concern is the pos-

sibility o security breaches, both rom

aulty computer soware and hackers,

who may be enticed by the opportunity

to spoil a major election.

Peoples computers

are not getting more se-

cure, wrote Avi Rubin, a

proessor o computer sci-

ence at Johns Hopkins Uni-

versity, in the CNN article

Why Cant Americans Vote

Online? Theyre getting

more inected with viruses and under

the control o malware.

Despite the drawbacks, Gilmore

sees online voting as a potential cure to

the voter-ID bills that have been spring-

ing up across the South, which have

been accused o discouraging minori-

ties rom participating in elections.Online voting is the silver bullet

or the disenranchisement o voters,

Gilmore said. At this point, though, I

cant really see online voting as a real-

ity within the next ew election cycles

in North Carolina since its going to take

such a massive coordinated eort on

behalf of a lot of people.

JENN NOWICKI

Online voting increases participation

among younger working voters, a group

that traditionally does not vote in numbersrepresentative o their demographic.

VOTING INTHE

DIGITAL AGE

ONLINE VOTINGCOMING SOON FORNORTH CAROLINA?

NOT LIKELY.


16/20

16 MAY2012

Discrimination against people withdisabilities ableism is a so-cial reality that ew acknowledge. In

the United States, many scholars in the

eld o disability, including Simi Linton,

the Co-Director o the University Semi-

nar in Disability Studies at Columbia

University, argue that ableism exists be-

cause being disabled is antithetical to

what it means to be American.

In a country where a persons value

rests on what she can produce, soci-

ety un-ables its citizens with impair-

ments by creating words such as spe-

cial needs and designing space with a

bias toward the able-bodied. In other

words, being able-bodied is a premise

to civic recognition here in the United

States, an observation which may ex-

plain why the term ableism is not as

readily used as its sisters sexism and

racism.

Earlier last month, I was in Lebanon

to look at ways in which ableism oper-

ates in another social, political and eco-

nomic context. I sought to understand

two things: how and why are people inLebanon unabled by society? To an-

swer those questions, I sat down with

Dr. Moussa Charaeddine, a prominent

disability activist in Lebanon and the

greater Middle East.

Background on Dr. Charaeddine:

Charaeddine is a physician who

ounded an organization called The

Friends o the Disabled. He started

his advocacy work in 1973. Initially, he

merely wanted to provide his two sons,

both physically and mentally impaired,

with a lie in which they would be rec-

ognized as people rather than objects

o philanthropy. Upon return, with a

degree rom John Hopkins University

in 1986, he ounded The Friends o the

Disabled.

For the last decade his organiza-

tion has run a private institution in the

Beirut area, which provides people with

disabilities with a wide range o servic-

es including therapeutic care to regular

educational activities. Charaeddine is

oen called upon to advise the United

Nations on its Convention on the Rights

o the Persons with Disabilities, which

was established in 2006.

Dr. Charaeddine, what are the chal-

lenges that people with disabilities ace

here in Lebanon?

Lack o civic inrastructure:The most serious challenges in the

eld o disability in Lebanon are the hec-

tic economic conditions and the lousy

social policy. There are a lot o inappro-

priate priorities and the governments in

this region tend to deal with their inter-

ests and to leave behind the coverage

o essential human rights. One example

is accessibility. There is a code o acces-

sibility or new buildings, which means

that in ve to 10 years, new buildings

will ensure physical mobility o people

with disabilities. But there is no Braille

or sign language included in the new

reorms.

Sectarian politics:

Lebanon is a multi-sectarian country

where you can nd a lot o minorities

and almost all parties are trying to gain

their rights and demands. Among these

dierent people are people with dis-

abilities who have their own demands

with regard to social rights, but whom

are divided among the socially diverse

society based on sectarian lines.

Philanthropic discourse on dis-

ability:

Sometimes people reer to people

with disabilities as invalid people hav-

ing special needs. They pity them and

approach them as people who should

be philanthropically supported as op-

posed to having their ull rights recog-nized. It is a big lie when they call them

people with special needs. All these

needs people require or their lives are

not special. They are vital needs: hous-

ing, medicine, schooling, riendships,

equal opportunity.

International

REVISTING DISABILITY

The Road to Unabling Citizens in LebanonAUDREY ANN LAVALLEE


17/20

MAY2012 17

Classifcation:

People with disabilities are deprived

rom being able. People with disability

are able-bodied persons i they receive

the proper tools and services. Then they

will unction like others. What we hear

rom able-bodied people is their classi-

cation o the disabled: that some are

mildly, moderately or severely or pro-

oundly disabled. They classiy them in

levels o inability. For us, people who

are living with disability, we claim that

the problem is not these people being

classied. They are normal people like

you and me. What needs to be leveled

is the support system mild, moderate,

severe support systems. People are in-

capacitated because somebody is un-

abling them.

Socioeconomic dierences:

Ninety-ve percent o children with

disabilities are out o school, hospitals

and centers. Only ve to 10 percent are

enrolled in special education. One one-

thousandth (0.001) percent are included

in public schools, labor markets or inde-

pendent living. This is despite the act

that 15 o the 18 Arab countries ratied

the Convention on the Right o the Per-

sons with Disabilities.

There are no subsidies or stipends

allocated by the government to house-

holds that have people with disabilities.

There are no governmental schools or

them. People with disabilities are en-

rolled in private schools, which cost a

lot o money. The house that we created

with the Friends o the Disabled is a pal-

ace because rich parents gave us money

to build it. It cost about seven and a halmillion dollars to make the center. We

accept almost all children ree o charge.

We do receive six dollars by day rom the

government or tuition ees, but services

like psychotherapy and ergotherapy are

15 dollars by day.

Are there diferences between the

way disabled men and women are treat-

ed?

Being a woman is a double disabil-

ity; being a woman is one thing and be-

ing disabled is another. A woman in the

eastern countries are the providers at

home. They are aceless, voiceless and

nameless. They are the service providers

or theirs sons with disabilities, their a-

thers with disabilities, their uncles with

disabilities. They are the holders o all

the catastrophes. They suer rom all

the disabilities because they provide

the services, not the government. There

are women with disabilities, but it is

rarely underlined that there are women

without disabilities dealing with the dis-

abled in their amilies. I the person with

disability is not enjoying his lie at home,

the mother is held responsible. On the

other side, i one ather ties his sons

shoes in public, people will say Oh,

what a great ather, while the woman

who, day and night, eeds hims, changes

diapers, brushes his teeth--nobody tells

her what a good mother she is.

How are the Human Rights Conven-

tion on the Rights o Persons with Dis-

abilities applied in Lebanon?

The United Nations discovered that

80 percent o people with disability live

in developing countries and 20 percent

live in developed countries. In 1983, the

United Nations started to make recom-

mendations or countries around the

world, and I was among seven experts

to put this disability track in the U.N.Now it is the Arab decade or the rights

o the disabled, which will end in 2013.

In 2006, the U.N. issued the U.N. Conven-

tion on the Rights o Persons with Dis-

abilities, which is a socio-political tool

to be adopted by the governments o

the world so that people with disabili-

ties can access their human rights. For

three days in Cairo, I studied the ate o

implementation o item 12,19,23 o the

U.N. Convention or the Rights o People

with Disabilities.

Supporters as opposed to guard-

ians:

Item 12 is about the legal capacities

o persons with disabilities. A person

should enjoy the ull range o his per-

sonal rights, such as the decisions o

marrying, going to the bank, etc. This is

not the case in the Arab world right now.

A person with disabilities who wants to

get married needs to be with a guardian.

People with disability should enjoy the

ull range o decision-making. People

might say, but how can the people with

mental disabilities have the ull capac-

ity to choose their lives? This question,

the how, is your problem, not theirs.

We went to the moon, we made atomic

bombs, why cant these people enjoy

this right? Do you consider these people

not human?

Aer 18 years o age, there should

not be legal guardians or people with

disabilities. Fathers, mothers and sisters

do not have the right to sign or to mar-

ry on someones behal. A person with

proound mental disability can choose

a support person. This person must un-

derstand his needs. It can be his ather

or mother, but it can also be someone

he knows and trusts and who is able to

translate his needs.

Future o Disability:

Item 18 o the Convention talks about

the inclusive education. There is a need

to put children in the same place wherethey would be put i they were not dis-

abled. Inclusive education has a long

way to go. It is a journey. You cannot

just dump them there, you need a wel-

coming area with multiple stakeholders

who can play a role in the process, like

parents, the administration and the gov-

ernment.


18/20

18 MAY2012

As the cost o attending college

soars, the job market stagnates

and states slash their unding or pub-

lic schools, students are increasingly

turning to private and ederal loans to

pay or their education. The market or

student loans, which exceeds $1 trillion

in the United States, is regulated by the

new Consumer Financial Protection Bu-

reau. While the CFPB is rapidly expand-

ing its mandate, its actions might be

too limited in scope to provide relie or

indebted students at UNC-Chapel Hill

and across the country.

The CFPB, an independent regulatory

agency housed inside the Federal Re-

serve, was created by the 2010 Dodd-

Frank Wall Street Reorm and Consumer

Protection Act in order to help con-

sumer nance markets work by mak-

ing rules more eective, by consistently

and airly enorcing those rules and by

empowering consumers to take more

control over their economic lives.

To this end, Rohit Chopra, the Bureaus

Ombudsman or Student Loans, has

launched the Know Beore You Owe

act sheet and the Student Debt Re-

payment Assistant, two tools designed

to educate students about the costs

o borrowing. Furthermore, on Mar. 5,

Chopra announced that the CFPB was

open or business and ready to hear

student complaints about the privateloan industry.

According to Kristin Anthony, UNCs As-

sistant Director or Financial Aid, the

private student loan industry lacks the

same consumer protections as ederal

loans. And because subsidized and un-

subsidized ederal loans or students

cap out well below the cost o atten-

dance, students increasingly must en-

ter the private loan market.

At Chapel Hill, 34.7 percent o graduat-

ing seniors took out loans in some orm

during the 2010-2011 academic year. The

same year, average cumulative indebt-

edness or Carolina students reached

$15,472.

In the past, this expanding market

or students may have been a boon or

duplicitous private lenders, who the

CFPB reports, do not generally have

the same borrower protections such as

military deerments, discharges upon

death or income-based repayment

plans as ederal lenders do.

But with increased oversight on the

way rom the CFPB, Anthony says pri-vate lenders such as Wells Fargo and

Sallie Mae have been lowering interest

rates to attract students and are clean-

ing up their act. For instance, banks are

making ewer loans to sub-prime stu-

dents who cannot aord to pay them

back.

While these reorms undoubtedly

improve the market or student loans,

they come too late or many young

Americans. For the rst time, Americans

owe more in student debt than in credit

card debt. The CFPB ears ongoing neg-

ative amortization- a phenomenon in

which interest on student debt grows

aster than students can pay o their

principals, meaning that student debt

can grow even i students drop out

o school and start paying down their

debts.

Faced with the prospects o mountain-

ous debt, students across the country

are looking or ways to save money.

John Son, a UNC rst year, says he is

considering graduating in three years

to save money and advises students tonever, ever, ever take private loans.

Alyssa Leib, another Carolina rst-year,

warns that nancial decisions made in

the early years o college can ollow

students or the rest o their lives.

I know people in their thirties who

are still paying o their student loans!

she said.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE?PETER VOGEL

How the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is Changing Student Debt


19/20

MAY2012 19

warning to its maker detailing a list o

saety concerns, particularly about the

untested eects o caeine being ab-

sorbed through the lungs. (Breathable

Foods claims their product does not

enter the lungs. No word on whether

theyll be considering a company name

change.)

But U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-

NY) wrote a statement prior to the FDA

warning that raised another question:

could AeroShot become the next Four

Loko? Four Loko, which savvy Schumer

mentioned by name, was a caeinatedalcoholic beverage that rose to wild

heights o popularity at rat parties and

ootball pre-games a ew years ago. It,

too, inspired an FDA warning. Four Loko

has since been reintroduced to the mar-

ket as a stimulant-ree product.

The FDA is probably right in ques-

tioning the saety o AeroShot. But Im

only an amateur ood-saety expert my-

sel, so Ill leave that call to them. My

unease, though, has less to do with

the awed mechanics o AeroShot

and more to do with Schumers im-

mediate assumption that college stu-

dents would start snorting their way to

drunken oblivion as soon as they got

their hands on some. This is

not to say that I disagree;

on the contrary, I commend

Schumer or having his n-

ger so rmly on the pulse

o Americas youth.

But isnt it a sorry

shame that we have to get

the FDA to ofcially warn

against products like Aero-

Shot rather than picking our heads up

out o the toilet and steering clear o

alcohol + caeine overdoses or a cou-

ple o weekends? Shouldnt we eel a

pinch o embarrassment that our elect-

ed ofcials logically assume the mereavailability o concentrated caeine will

necessarily lead to sel-harm among

college students? So, I say lets prove

em wrong. I you cannot resist the en-

ticement o that sleek inhaler, use it

or an exam-season energy boost. That

is, i the FDA does not remove it rom

shelves by then.

H

ave you always thought that the

one thing missing rom your gas-

tronomic experiences is aerosol? Have

you longed or calorie-ree avor deliv-

ered via inhaler, right to your hungry

stomach? Breathable Foods, Inc. is pre-

pared to give you just that.

Unortunately, consumers o the

companys most popular

oering, a blast o ca-

eine called AeroShot,

may be seeking not

space-age cuisine, but

blackout drunkenness.

AeroShot comes in

a small gray-and-yellow

inhaler that resembles

a bullet casing. Its web-

site advises using your AeroShot when

hitting the gym, taking a road trip or

staying awake at your desk aer de-

vouring a bacon double cheeseburger

at lunch. These suggestions appear

over an image o a hot, 20 somethingmale (he reminded me vaguely o A.C.

Slater) who is slickly pulling an Aero-

Shot out o his aded chambray shirt

pocket as he gazes down at it with a

very small, very smug one-sided smile.

The whole thing oozes sexiness.

AeroShot made headlines a couple

weeks back when the FDA issued a

BREATHING IN

ENERGY

The FDAs possible ban on caffeine inhalentsLIBBY RODENBOUGH

Shouldnt we eel a pinch o

embarrassment that our elected ofcials

logically assume the mere availability oconcentrated caeine will necessarily lead

to sel-harm among college students?


20/20

20 MAY2012

Published with support rom:

Campus Progress, a division of the Center for American Progress.

Campus Progress works to help young people advocates, activists,

journalists, artists make their voices heard on issues that matter.

Learn more at CampusProgress.org

This publication was unded at least in part by Student Fees which were appropriated and

dispersed by the Student Government at UNC Chapel Hill.

Campus BluePrint is a non-partisan student publication that aims to provide a orum or open

dialogue on progressive ideals at UNC-Chapel Hill and in the greater community.

spring issue 4 last draft

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