OPINION Salisbury Post “The truth shall make you free” GREGORY M. ANDERSON Publisher 704-797-4201 ganderson@salisburypost.com
ELIZABETH G. COOK
CHRIS RATLIFF
Editor
Advertising Director
704-797-4244 editor@salisburypost.com
704-797-4235 cratliff@salisburypost.com
CHRIS VERNER
RON BROOKS
Editorial Page Editor
Circulation Director
704-797-4262 cverner@salisburypost.com
704-797-4221 rbrooks@salisburypost.com
DARTS AND LAURELS
Take your pick of things to do art to the people who complain there’s nothing to do in Salisbury and Rowan County. Look at all the things happening today. For foodies, there’s the BBQ Festival in Spencer or the Strawberry Fest in Gold Hill. Art lovers can spend a day on Easy Street in Salisbury. Music lovers should stop by tonight and hear “Sassy Blues” performers Eden Brent and Bob Paolino at the Looking Glass Artist Collective’s Black Box Theater. Families have choices that include the “Bear Tales” and “Laser Zeppelin” shows at Horizons Unlimited’s planetarium, the Cleveland Spring Fest (with fireworks at 9:15 p.m.) or Waterworks’ Family Fun Day at the Trolley Barn. Peace and harmony find their way again to the Let’s Get Connected Day at Sloan Park. Sportsmen can down-throttle to the cruise-in for boats, rods and bikes at High Rock Boat & Ski Club. Pet lovers buoy the aspirations for a Faithful Friends Animal Sanctuary when they spend money at today’s yard sale at the former K-town Furniture store on East Innes Street. When people attend a hot dog dinner and raffle at Mount Zion United Church of Christ, they are raising money for Rachel Rawlings, who is battling H1N1 and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. And don’t forget the Kannapolis Intimidators’ game tonight at Fieldcrest-Cannon Stadium. Hey, the Intimidators have fireworks, too. • • •
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Dart to the teenagers who apparently are responsible for gang graffiti on the historic Ice & Fuel building on East Horah Street and the even more serious crime of throwing bricks from the tops of downtown buildings. The graffiti featured 10-foot-tall letters on the side of the remaining component of an old ice plant, now owned by Historic Salisbury Foundation. If the kids who spraypainted “CSW” — which reportedly stands for Cali Street Wars, a West Coast gang — are caught, the best punishment would be cleaning up graffiti across the city. And would someone please inform these intelligent people they’re not on the West Coast? As for the brick throwers — two 18-yearold men have been charged with this misdeed — a good punishment for them would be to stand against a wall while dodging bricks thrown at them by passersby. No matter how innocent their brickthrowing from the top of a North Main Street building might have been, they were launching missiles that could have killed a pedestrian, a motorist or both. Forget bricks, throw the book at these guys. • • • Laurels to teenagers and adult leaders at First Presbyterian Church who have a found a way to keep their summer mission work alive. For the second year in a row, the Teens With a Mission group has been blocked from going to Reynosa, Mexico, where they have been building homes for families over the past two decades. Last year the obstacle was the H1N1 outbreak, and the teens took their mission work to Kentucky instead. This year drug-related violence in Mexico has encroached on Reynosa, making the trip too dangerous. That has rerouted the folks at First Presbyterian again. There will be 20 youth and 10 adults going to Jamaica in July to help with a school for the deaf. The group’s 5K Mission Run this morning at the Salisbury Community Park off Hurley School Road is raising funds for the trip. Just one more thing happening today.
4A • SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2010
SALISBURY POST
She died because people looked away ike everybody who has followed the story, I’ve found myself contemplating the tragedy of University of Virginia student athlete Yeardley Love. Found beaten to death at her off-campus apartment, Love appears to have been universally beloved. At her funeral in Baltimore, Va., lacrosse coach Julie Myers eulogized her as “truly remarkGENE able ... not beLYON cause she tried to be, but because she just was. It came easy for her to be great, to be kindhearted, welcoming, encouraging and engaging to all who knew her. She was legitimately awesome.” In photos, Love’s radiant smile contrasts painfully with the sullen mug shot of the exboyfriend who killed her. Virginia senior and fellow lacrosse player George Huguely has admitted to police that he kicked in her bedroom door and shook her, banging the young woman’s head repeatedly against the wall. By all accounts, it was far from Huguely’s first assault against Love and men he saw as rivals for her affection. His lawyer has characterized her death as a tragic accident. Should it matter that Love was a beautiful, talented graduate of an upscale Catholic girl’s school? That she volun-
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teered at soup kitchens and tutored poor kids in math? That Huguely, too, emerged from a privileged background — a lacrosse All-American and honor student at the exclusive Landon School in Bethesda, Md.? Is the murder more shocking because it took place at the University of Virginia, whose serenely beautiful campus, designed by Thomas Jefferson, is an architectural monument to its founder’s ideals of order and reason? How is Huguely’s crime different from crimes of jealous rage enacted in suburban tract homes, trailer parks and tenements virtually every day — men beating women to death with their fists because they fear they can’t control them? The answer: It is and it isn’t. Maybe we shouldn’t be any more horrified by Yeardley Love’s death than by any woman’s, but many are. I know my feelings are related to having been privileged to spend four years at the University of Virginia and meeting my wife there. Although there’s no resemblance, I can’t look at Yeardley’s shining face without seeing hers at the same age. My God, what a tragedy. Huguely’s mug shot could be that of any of my rugby teammates, or, for that matter, my own. No family fortune here, but that’s trivial. I knew many young men like him back then. “This death,” University of Virginia President John Casteen said, “moves us to deep
anguish for the loss of a student of uncommon talent and promise. ... We mourn her death and feel anger on reading that the investigators believe that another student caused it.” At a candlelight vigil, Casteen urged people in the university community not to stand by passively but to report suspected domestic violence. “Tuck away in your soul the knowledge that neither Yeardley Love nor any woman attacked ever deserved it,” he said. Amen to that. Casteen was a classmate and friend. Although we’ve lost touch, I know two things about him: He’s a native Virginian who loves his state and loves the university deeply. This tragedy must be causing him terrible anguish. Shouldn’t somebody have done something? Yes, but who? And what? There’s much we don’t know. Writing in the Washington Post, columnist Sally Jenkins asks whether there’s “something in our sports culture that condones these assaults? The question risks demonizing scores of decent, guiltless men. ... But I do mean to ask those who knew of Huguely’s behavior an important question. Why did they not treat Yeardley Love as their teammate, too? “Where were her brothers?” On anonymous comment lines, many derided the ”coddling” of “spoiled, self-entitled punks.” Others also blamed athletes generally. One fellow urged “the death penalty for
the perpetrator, a white, privileged fellow from a deeply Republican family” — to me, an excellent argument against the death penalty. The jock culture I grew up in saw bullying women as cowardly and shameful. I doubt Virginia players felt otherwise. I’d be astonished if anybody there thought winning lacrosse matches trumped Love’s safety. However, in hindsight, Huguely was spinning out of control. He’d attacked a sleeping teammate he suspected of kissing Love; three UNC lacrosse players pulled him off her at a fraternity party two months ago. In Lexington, Va., in 2008, he’d cursed and attacked a woman police officer, who tasered and arrested him. His sentence? Six months of probation. Six months of lockdown rehab and psychiatric evaluation would have been more like it. UVa officials never knew. The common denominator? Booze. A culture of ”gentlemanly“ drunkenness has long been pervasive in Charlottesville and on many campuses. People who seemingly only knew Huguely sober have attested to his fundamental decency. He probably made contrite apologies like a champion; he probably even meant them. Now her life is gone and his destroyed, because everybody looked away. • • • Lyons is a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Smart call on high school sports The Times-News of Burlington on NCHSAA finally trying to trim costs of high school athletics: or the past few years, the organization that oversees high school athletics in this state has looked at ways to trim the escalating cost of high school athletics. And every year, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association decided to punt. Recently, though, they elected to go for it. From the stands, it looks like a good call. With a whiff or two of contention, the NCHSAA board of directors voted to shorten the high school football season by one week, start the winter sports schedule a week later and, most significantly, develop a playoff system that should eliminate expensive crossstate travel for early round playoff games. The changes start with the 2012 season. Kent Byrd, a board member from the AlamanceBurlington School System, was among those who questioned whether shortening the football season would actually save money. Under the new format, the season would start the same week it does now. Instead of 12 weeks to play 11 games, schools will, in 2012, have 11 possible playing dates. It will result in the state championship games moving up a week. Teams have the option of forgoing the endowment game in favor of a bye week. Byrd might have a point. But there is no doubt that using a pod system for high school football playoffs will be a money saver. In December, Cummings High School faced a first-round playoff trip to Kill Devil Hills on the North Carolina Outer Banks, a round trip of 500-plus miles that school officials said cost $2,000 just to charter a bus. Under the new system, the East and West regions will be split into two geographically defined pods. That means higher-seeded teams may meet in earlier rounds, but long trips would be eliminated. With government budgets stretched at every level and no immediate end in sight, the NCHSAA decided to act responsibly. We offer a hearty “Rah!”
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LETTERS Barbershop career full of lessons Thanks ... from Mike the barber. My near 40-year career at Southgate Barber Shop has been a wonderful journey. I have had the opportunity to become acquainted and make friends with literally thousands of people. The education I’ve gained from others’ experiences has been priceless. I have learned how to do things the right way with shortcuts and sometimes more importantly how not to do things. I have witnessed people tackle and overcome obstacles that made my bumps in the road seem miniscule. I have learned something from all of you. My co-workers over the years have been great teachers also, some of the best in me I learned from them. Now it’s different. I can’t go to work anymore as I battle ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease).
TO THE
EDITOR
Letters policy The Salisbury Post welcomes letters to the editor. Each letter should be limited to 300 words and include the writer’s name, address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity and length. Limit one letter each 14 days. Write Letters to the Editor, Salisbury Post, P.O. Box 4639, Salisbury, NC 28145-4639. Or fax your letter to 639-0003. E-mail: letters@salisburypost.com
But, the people in my life are still truly a blessing. The calls, cards and visits make my days. Please accept my gratitude to each and every one of you. May God’s saving grace touch you all. — Mike Earnhardt Granite Quarry
More on magistrate A letter in Friday’s Post criticized Joe McGee, a Rowan County magistrate, for posting a joke about President Obama on his Facebook page. Chief District Court Judge
Charlie Brown passed along McGee’s apology, which McGee put on Facebook Tuesday. In it, McGee says: “I’ve apparently posted a ‘joke’ here, that has offended someone. It was not meant to hurt anyone. I am and always shall be a defender of all peoples, regardless of race, creed, color, age, or gender. I humbly apologize if this posting was hurtful or brought shame upon any person. I promise to continue to faithfully serve the public and refrain from poking fun that would bring embarrassment or hurt to any persons.”
Innocence not enough for Perdue The Herald-Sun of Durham
ustice is messy. Guilty people go free, innocent people go to jail, and the governor can grant pardons — but she doesn’t usually make citizen’s arrests. Greg Taylor was convicted of the September 1991 murder of Jacquetta Thomas. He served 6,149 days — nearly 17 years — in prison before three judges reviewed the case that was brought before the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission, a court of last resort for felons that inverts the usual rules. Prosecutors don’t have to prove that
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the convicted defendant is guilty; his defense attorneys have to find new evidence that demonstrates his innocence. Taylor’s was the second case that made it all the way through the commission’s exhaustive hoops in order to get a judicial ruling, and he was the first defendant to be declared innocent. He is walking around free today. In March, Taylor gave investigators permission to further test his clothes for DNA, and Gov. Beverly Perdue is awaiting the tests’ outcome before she signs the pardon. Perdue doesn’t have to pardon Taylor. But until she does,
he will not receive the $750,000 that the state owes him. Perdue is getting plenty of licks for the delay. Taylor, a former drug addict who didn’t call police when he found Thomas’ body, isn’t precisely a media darling, but he is the symbol of North Carolina’s commitment to justice. ... We don’t require pardons for any other people who are exonerated in the court system — only the ones freed by the Innocence Inquiry Commission. The Legislature ought to tie the state’s compensation for wrongful imprisonment to the commission’s verdict, not a gubernatorial pardon.