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(03/12/98 5:00am)
In the past year, as race-consciousness has risen to perhaps its highest level since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, those who blanch at the idea of heightened race awareness have been accused of fearing an open discussion of the issue. But these folks (I count myself a member of this group) are put off not by fear of an open forum, but rather by the character of the race discussion, which has demonstrated the depths to which political discourse in this country has sunken-where muddled contradictions parade as diversity and touchy-feely celebrations of ideas such as choice, understanding and open-mindedness masquerade as political analysis. If we are to make any racial progress, we must wipe away this veneer and delve into the difficult issues that define our most controversial national dilemma.
(02/18/98 5:00am)
At a nationally recognized, highly selective university such as Duke, one expects everything to be held to as high a standard of quality as the students. Usually, this holds true; our medical center is one of the best in the world, our basketball team is a perennial power, and our faculty is superb. An anomaly amidst all this excellence is Dining Services, which for years has provided consistently mediocre food options and sub-par service.
(01/21/98 5:00am)
Saturday afternoon, on the eleventh floor of a Washington law firm, the President of the United States delivered a six hour deposition concerning the sexual assault charges filed by Paula Jones. He addressed such lofty topics such as his philandering ways and the shape of the presidential member. A phalanx of salivating reporters waited outside, hoping for the latest scoop. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but something doesn't sit right here.
(12/10/97 5:00am)
As recently as a couple of years ago, the mere thought of legalizing any drug for any reason struck me as unconscionable. So when I read about Proposition 215, which legalized marijuana for medical use in California (where else?), I envisioned the oft-cited "slippery slope" theory at its worst, with sick people taking marijuana cascading into 16-year-olds mainlining heroin in broad daylight.
(11/12/97 5:00am)
About 15 months ago, the passage of the landmark welfare reform bill was met with significant hue and cry about the government abandoning those who needed help the most. Some of the more dire prognostications included an Urban Institute study that predicted that the new law would impoverish 2.6 million people, including 1.1 million children. If you haven't noticed, this apocalyptic rhetoric has been curiously absent in the last few months.
(10/29/97 5:00am)
At the University of Nebraska, a graduate student who kept a picture of his girlfriend wearing a bikini on his desk was slapped with a harassment complaint; the university ordered the picture removed. In Murfreesboro, Tenn., a city hall employee complained that an impressionist painting displayed there, which showed a woman's breast, constituted workplace harassment; the city attorney took it down. It is the thesis of author Jonathan Rauch that these ludicrous cases are not isolated examples, but rather are indicators of a discouraging trend toward exempting the workplace from basic First Amendment protection of free speech.
(10/08/97 4:00am)
As the '90s progress, a strange dichotomy is developing between the overall tranquillity of our times and the ever-increasing malaise among the members of my generation. On the one hand, we have peace abroad, decreasing unemployment (which is currently at 4.9 percent-a 24-year low), rising wages and decreasing crime and drug use. But on the other hand, we are faced with an American youth characterized by endemic teen pregnancy, increasing crime and drug use, and a general amorality and apathy that would be distressing at any time, but is incomprehensible in our era of relative prosperity.
(09/24/97 4:00am)
Well folks, it appears that the living situation at Duke has become the cause celebre of the year-with the omnipresent and ever-sensitive race issue as its centerpiece. Yeah, yeah, I know I wrote about this last time, but too many things have since been said that cry out, heck, practically get down on their knees and beg for my profound and penetrating insight.
(09/10/97 4:00am)
Last Thursday, my lunch in the Cambridge Inn was interrupted when my eye caught the headline of that morning's Chronicle: "Spectrum urges abolition of selective housing: Organization's leaders claim system constitutes institutionalized racism."
(04/23/97 4:00am)
For the past month or so, an ongoing debate has been played out in the pages of both The Chronicle and The Duke Review, and in this, my final column of the year, I feel the need to put in my two-cents worth. I'm frustrated by the position held by many University students with regards to University employees. Recent Chronicle letters have supported the idea that the University's employees are to be pitied, due to the disrespect shown them by an over-privileged bunch of snot-nosed punks (read: University students).
(04/03/97 5:00am)
A currently popular argument suggests that there are no more heroes in America; that our culture is so consumed by materialism and laziness that heroic action has been rendered obsolete. Adherents to this theory point to the questionable characters that dominate today's headlines and capture the fancy of the public: Dennis Rodman, Larry Flynt and a whacko cult that wanted to jump on the spaceship hidden behind the Hale-Bopp comet. Not exactly Odyssey material.
(03/13/97 5:00am)
If you recall, the last time I graced these pages I provided my massive readership (which stands at seven, counting myself) with a lucid and penetrating exploration of the degeneration of the liberal vision into an offensive and ineffectual obsession with group rights. For those out there who read it as well as my previous columns and believe me to be your typical, close-minded conservative, this Bud's for you.
(02/20/97 5:00am)
Once upon a time, what we call "modern liberalism" flowered to fight a status quo in which white, Protestant males dominated society and suppressed individual freedoms. Loosely traced to the 1960s, this culture of protest arose specifically in response to the war in Vietnam, and, more generally, in response to the inequalities inherent in American bourgeois life.
(01/30/97 5:00am)
We live in a nation that is supposedly the greatest on earth, in a period of seemingly endless economic growth. Yet for a time that would seem to be so conducive to nationwide optimism, murmurings of the sorry state of society, the degeneration of youth and the loss of the ideals of the American Dream are disturbingly prevalent.
(11/01/96 5:00am)
Well, it's election time again, and we all know what that means. No, not just being bombarded by commercials showing Jesse Helms playing with his grandkids in a pathetic attempt to portray him as a lovable, huggable softie. It means another round of rhetoric about low voter turnout and the general apathy of the average American toward politics.
(09/26/96 4:00am)
Common sense, defined as a capacity for perception and appreciation of everyday situations, is under attack in our society. Ostensibly uncontroversial, pellucid ideas are suddenly objectionable, and one has to apprehensively look over his shoulder when he says that the sky is blue.
(09/05/96 4:00am)
When president Clinton signed the historic welfare bill last week, making good on his promise to "end welfare as we know it," much of America breathed a collective "Finally!" But another sound could also be heard-a voice of dissent from the left-wing of the president's own party. Apparently, despite all the tough talk about budget cuts, any real attempt to shrink government rubs these folks the wrong way.
(04/24/96 4:00am)
After reading Gloria Ntegeye's column on Dinesh D'Souza's speech, we were appalled at her unfounded criticism of his theories. Contrary to what Ntegeye may think, D'Souza is anything but "ignorant." Rather, he supports his thesis eloquently, not only by sound argument, but by documented fact. For example, D'Souza cites that children from black families that make $60,000 a year score lower on the SATs than children from white and Asian families who make $20,000 a year. This statistic is sobering, but facts don't lie.
