spring mini issue 1 draft 4 pdf

8/2/2019 Spring Mini Issue 1 Draft 4 PDF

1/32

B l ue P r i n tCA M P US

S P R I NG O N L I N E 2

o r - P r o f i t Co l le g e s

Mo b i l i t y i n A m e r ic a

H u m a n R ig h t s t h r o u

g h V is u a l Vo C i v i l R ig h t

s Re v is i ted


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2 Spring2012

13KING HISTORIAN ON CIVIL RIGHTS

Dear Readers,

Taylor Branch, UNC-Chapel Hill alum,Pulitzer-Prize winner, and civil rightsactivist, is awe inspiring. He believesthat we are living in good times, i not necessarily epical ones. He rec-ognized that he was living during atime or action, and he capitalized onthat realization by choosing to actduring the Civil Rights Movement.

Branch can write long books. Reallylong books. And i you think his 1,088page book about the Civil RightsMovement, Parting the Waters, waslong, you should have seen it be orehis editors told him to cut hundredso pages.

In this issue, we draw on his vastknowledge and incredible experi-ences to revisit the Civil Rights Era inthe hopes o drawing some lessonsrom our past to help us ace our u-ture. Maybe we will be able to rec-ognize when our moment o actionis here, and choose, like Branch, toact as well.

Happy reading!

Chelsea PhippsEditor-in-Chie

FROM THE EDITOR CONTENTS

On the Cover: Waiting Around For aChange by Kelsie Mitchell

chelsea phipps editor - in - chiefsarah bufkin assistant editor

carey hanlin creative directorcari jeffries , tyler tran photo editor

joseph biernacki , michael dickson , hayley fahey ,molly hrudka , carey hanlin , akhil jariwala , audrey

ann lavallee , ellen murray , rachel myrick , jenni -fer nowicki , wilson parker , libby rodenbough , luda shtessel , grace tatter , neha verma , kyle villemain ,

peter vogel , kelly yahner staff writerssally fry , cassie mcmillan , jasmine lamb , paige

warmus production and designanne brenneman , michael dickson , molly hrudka ,

STAFF

Mobilizing Beyond Gay MarriageCan Obama Win it Again?Future o Triangle TransitThe Keystone Pipeline

Politicizing Climate ChangeSu ering in SyriaDevelopment Through SportThe Atheist Temple ControversyInterview with Taylor BranchDecline in Mobility in AmericaFailures o For-Pro t CollegesA More Dangerous World?Visualizing Human Rights

18SOCIAL MOBILITY FALTERING IN AMERICA

20FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES: A RISKY BUSINESS

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10121318202225

cari jeffries , carey hanlin , wilson hood , molly hrudka , grace tatter , kelly yahner copy editors

gihani dissanayake , christyn gerber , sarah hoehn ,hannah nemer , stefanie schwemlein ,

renee sullender , jennifer tran photographersrachel allen , cynthia betubiza , joseph biernacki ,

sarah brown , michael dickson , hayley fahey amy hazlehurst , wilson hood , sam hughes , akhil jariwala janna jung -irrgang , jennifer nowicki ,

wilson parker , grace phillips ,sarah rutherford , ellen werner , akhil jariwala ,

neha verma , bloggerstravis clayton social media director


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FEBRUARY2012 3

BeyondMarriage

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In the fight for marriage equality,other important issues in the LGBT

that discriminination is notlimited solely to the is-sue of marriage. Civilrights continue toimprove, but thestruggle is far

community are often overlooked.But it is important not to forget

from over.


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4 Spring2012

North Carolina is not used to receiv-ing much attention rom presiden-tial candidates. The states late primaryand its position in the solid Southhave made or ew competitive elec-tions in the past several decades. Withthe notable -- and perhaps un ortunate-- exception o ormer senator John Ed-wards, the state has played a small rolein US presidential elections. But that allchanged in 2008, and the 2012 electionlooks to be just as extraordinary.

When then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)carried the state by a margin o 0.3 per-cent, North Carolinas swing to the lesurprised many news organizations. Inact, o 17 prominent news organiza-tions, only two correctly predicted theoutcome o the state in the election,with most simply declaring it a toss-up.

As close as the result in North Caro-lina was, however, the state was nota deciding actor in the 2008 election.President Obama won in a landslide;had North Carolinas een electoralvotes gone to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ),the outcome would have been una -

ected.In this election, however, trying towin North Carolina will be an impor-tant part o the presidents strategy.Recent changes in demographics andincreased voter turnout among blacksand Hispanics mean that the stateselectorate is markedly more progres-sive than ever be ore.

Indeed, Public Policy Polling, a Dur-ham-based polling organization, oundthat Obama is leading the eld againstevery Republican candidate amongNorth Carolina voters.

Dean Debnam, the president o Pub-lic Policy Polling, said, Barack Obamasapproval numbers in North Carolina arethe best theyve been in months thiswill never be an easy state or Demo-crats at the presidential level, but hehas a very good chance o repeating hissurprise 2008 victory here.

The states importance to Obamaschances o re-election is no secret, andneither is the motivation behind the a-vorable placement o UNC and NC Statein his NCAA bracket. The choice o Char-lotte as the location or the 2012 Demo-cratic National Convention has beenwidely regarded as an attempt to courtthe avor o North Carolina voters.

Additionally, North Carolina has seena remarkable increase in the number o visits it receives rom administration o -cials, including Secretary o Housingand Urban Development Sean Dono-

vans recent visit to UNC.While no Republican candidate hasclinched the nomination, ormer Massa-chusetts Gov. Mitt Romney who leadsthe Republican eld in delegates orthe convention has received endorse-ments rom several prominent NorthCarolina Republicans, including Sen.Richard Burr. In coming months, the Re-

publican presidential candidate is likelyto also ocus his e orts North Carolina.

As the campaign kicks into high gear,North Carolina -- and perhaps even UNC-- is likely to be visited by prominentpolitical gures rom both parties. Suchan outcome bodes well or politicalenthusiasts and poorly or those whohate watching attack ads in the middleof their favorite TV programs.

NORTH CAROLINA AND THE 2012 ELECTIONCAN OBAMA

WIN AGAIN?WILSON PARKER

President Obama speaks at West Wilkes HighSchool, Millers Creek, NC, on his American Jobs

Act tour.

O f f i c i a l W h i t e H o u s e

P h o t o

b y P e t e

S o u z a


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FEBRUARY2012 5

Triangle Transit might o er a new al-ternative to buses or travel betweenChapel Hill and Durham in the near u-ture.. The proposal includes a 17-milelight rail corridor that would run romthe UNC hospitals to downtown Dur-ham--a segment o a larger plan to con-nect Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh andCary by light rail within the next 10 to15 years.

According to the Durham-OrangeCounty Friends o Transit, the U.S. cen-sus estimates that the Triangle area willgrow rom its current 1.5 million resi-dents to 2.5 million by 2035. The groupinsists that new transit options are es-sential to support the growth.

The Durham-Chapel Hill segment,which would cost approximately $1.4billion, could be paid or in part by aproposed hal -cent increase in salestaxes or Orange and Wake Counties.But according to Orange and Wake o -cials, voters might not see a proposalat the ballot box until late 2013.

The Durham County Commission, onthe other hand, voted this past Novem-ber in avor o a hal -cent tax on thecondition that the tax would not be im-plemented until either Orange or Wake

County did the same.Im glad, delighted that citizens re-alized the long-term needs we have inpreparing or the next ew decades inestablishing transit [and] getting ourtransportation system a lot more up tospeed with the growth we anticipate,Durham County Commissioners Chair-man Michael Page told The Herald Sun.

THE FUTURE OFTRIANGLE TRANSITCAREY HANLIN

2012 Planning and engineering begins or:

1) Rail rom Durham to Research Triangle

Park to Raleigh2) Rail rom Downtown Durham toChapel Hill

Opening year o 37-mile rail connectionbetween Research Triangle Park and Raleigh

Opening year o 17-mile requent rail con-nection rom Durham to to Chapel Hill

2018

2025

Currently, two options or the Durham-

Chapel Hill segment are on the table.Option C1, avored by planners on theproject, would cut through the Mead-owmont community. Option C2, avoredby many residents, would cut throughthe existing N.C. 54 corridor. Proponentso the C2 corridor say that the C1 optionwould compromise unspoiled naturalarea.

The option would, however, cost ap-

proximately $40 million less to build.While a third option running throughthe U.S. 15-501 corridor was proposed,Orange County Commissioners ulti-mately agreed to send both the C1 andC2 options orward or environmentalresearch, the next step in the overallapproval process.

Looking to the uture


6/32

6 Spring2012

A PIPELINE INTO

AKHIL JARIWALAWEIGHING THE PROS AND CONS OF THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE

OBAMAS MIND:

Opponents o an almost 2,000-mileoil pipeline participated in the larg-est-ever environmental demonstrationoutside the White House last November,orming a human chain that encircledthe buildings gates.

The much-protested Keystone XL pipe-line is a $7 billion, 1,700-mile extensiono the Keystone 1 pipeline that would

bring 700,000 barrels a day o oillocked up in the sands o West Canada called tar sands oil to Texass gul re neries.

The protests were organized when theObama administration seemed poiseto approve the pipeline. But more thanthree months later, Obama rejectedTransCanadas permit application.

So was Obamas rejection o the pipe-line good policy or good politics?

The Case Against the Pipeline:Ethics is the biggest argument or re-

jecting the pipeline. Tapping into the tarsands is a carbon bomb. NASA scientistJames Hansen went so ar as to call itgame over or the climate.

Endorsing Canadian tar sands is akin

to signaling to the world that the U.S. isready to put a blowtorch to climate so-lutions. Athabascan tar sands constitutethe worlds largest known oil reservesoutside o Saudi Arabia. By 2020, Cana-dian tar sands oil will emit twice as manygreenhouse gases as the entirety o Can-adas automobile eet.

Images o the Athabascan tar sandsoperation look like nuclear bomb testsites. Oil companies portend to destroy150,000 square kilometers o Canadianboreal orest and the ecological servicesthey provide.

Many supporters have tried to use thealtering economy as a counter-point. Butoverall, the argument that the pipelinewill bring jobs to a altering economy isin ated. According to TransCanada, the

project would bring 20,000 job-years(one job, one year) to the US economy,which includes 7,000 supply chain jobs ar too ew jobs to change the unem-ployment rate or an economy with morethan 12 million workers.

Why the pipeline should have beenpassed:

Unless we get serious about curbingdemand, rejecting the pipeline wontsolve anything. Oil prices will continueto rise, and tar sands will continue to bemined. From an environmental sa etystandpoint, the Keystone Pipeline repre-sents business as usual. Emissions perunit are actually only 17 percent higherthan normal Saudi crude oil.

The argument that the pipeline is not

sa e because it crosses the Ogallala aqui-er a groundwater reserve beneath theSouthwest that is tapped or arming anddrinking water is misleading. The Key-stone XL pipeline would be one o doz-ens o pipelines that already cross theOgallala, including the original Keystonepipeline.

Although TransCanadas jobs proposalis weak, perhaps it cannot be dismissed.Keystone XL is a shovel-ready project thatwould provide 5,000 to 6,000 jobs withinthe month, according to the State De-partment. These are not li etime jobs, butthey would be a li eline to unemployedAmericans seeking help until a perma-nent job came along.

Finally, Obama should have approvedthe Keystone XL pipeline because he is

an environmentalist. Should rejectiono the pipeline become permanent andthe U.S. ail to become serious about oildemand, there are but two righteningoutcomes:

1) Best Case: Tar sands oil still makes itto the U.S. through the Enbridge Pipelinethat doesnt need Obamas approval be-cause it already crosses the U.S.-Canadaborder.

2) Worst Case: Tar sands oil makes itto China instead, through a much morecarbon-intensive shipping process, whilethe U.S. is orced to quench its demandwith more Middle Eastern oil.

Obama should be lauded or his recordo putting good policy be ore politics. Butthis time, maybe he should get on boardbefore the oil leaves the harbor.


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FEBRUARY2012 7

In school districts across America, teachersare increasingly pushed to rame globalclimate change as a controversial issue,implying that its legitimacy is debatable.

Global climate change is thus beingadded to a list o topics, including the ori-gins o li e and evolution, that are to betaught as problematic even though thereare no opposing scienti c viewpoints.

State school boards in Texas, Louisianaand South Dakota have already intro-duced rules requiring that climate changedenial be taught as a valid scienti c po-sition. According to South Dakotas stateschool boards resolution, Carbon diox-ide is not a pollutant, but rather a highlybene cial ingredient or all plant li e.

What these states do not seem to re-alize is that these are science classes.Politically, global climate change is an in-ammatory issue, but scienti cally, thereis no controversy. Perhaps teaching thecontroversy is appropriate or social sci-ence classes, but the politics o the issueought to be kept separate rom science.

Where is the controversy?Global climate change is a act accepted

by the ederal government and practicallyevery pro essional scienti c organization.All mainstream scientists agree emis-sions o greenhouse gases, especially

carbon dioxide, are altering the averagetemperature o the planet and will con-tinue to do so.

In the scienti c eld, ideas are basedon evidence, and there is ample evidenceor global climate change. Climate mod-els, observations o changes in averagetemperature and isotopes that trace theexcess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

NEHA VERMA

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGETEACHING THE CONTROVERSY WHERE NONE EXISTS

back to ossil uels provide concrete evi-dence that the earth as a whole is gettingwarmer, and that human activities are acontributing actor.

Debate exists, but not on the existence o climate change.

Its true that there is disagreement with-in the scienti c community regardinghow quickly these temperature changesare occurring and to what extent theywill continue. There is also debate aboutthe role humans play in creating globalclimate change. But the act remains thatmost scientists agree that human activi-

ties are the main cause o the phenom-enon. It does not make sense or scienceclasses to portray it as a controversialidea.

In act, the e ects o global climatechange have already been seen. This pastdecade was the hottest since the 1880s.Wildli e has also been a ected by the in-creasing temperatures because o the

need to swim urther to reach melting iceoes, the polar bear is nearing extinction.

Additionally, there has been a rise insevere weather. For example, accordingto a 2005 paper in Science magazine, thenumber o category 4 and 5 hurricaneshas increased 80 percent over the past30 years.

Global warming also is detrimental tohuman health increased pollution hasbeen proven to agitate asthma and aller-gies, and the higher temperatures allowmosquitoes carrying atal diseases totravel arther distances.

In order to protect our environment and

ourselves, the concept o global climatechange must not only be accepted, butthe human contributions to global warm-ing must be recognized and reduced.

A new generation o those who deny cli-mate change is not what the world needsright now we cannot a ord to teachthe controversy where no scienti c con-troversy exists.

Students in the Philippines attend a climate change orientation class.


8/32

8 Spring2012

C ivil War.The Christians to Beirut and theAlawites to the tombs chanted protest-ers in Homs during a protest last De-cember. The Alawites are a Shia Mus-lim sect and minority group in Syria,o which the current Syrian rulers aremembers. Three months later, the main-stream media still shies away rom call-ing the Syrian Revolution a civil war. In-stead, they use reductionist statementsand write that Syria might be slidingor descending into civil war.

The sectarian slogan chanted by Syr-ians in the streets o Homs does notseem to t the U.S. and its allies nar-rative o the situation in Syria. In theirportrayal o the con ict, protestersunanimously want the West to inter-vene. But this is a highly inaccurateview which continues to decrease thechances o a peace ul resolution.

Framing an InterventionUntil now, U.S. diplomats, including

UN ambassador Susan Rice, have de-

picted the Syrian con ict as a brutalgovernment crackdown on peace ulprotesters. Every day, readers o main-stream media are bombarded with newdata rom activists inside Syria and ex-pert organizations releasing ofcialnumbers o appalling death tolls. Noone can argue against the veracity o the ootage o besieged cities where

civilians are killed mercilessly. But sincejournalists cannot ofcially enter Syria,no one has exact numbers.

The inaccurate data on where and howdeaths took place can easily be used topolarize Syrian citizens. There is a jokein Syria that says that 50 percent o thepopulation are spies or the Syrian re-gime. What happens when the deathso civilians siding with the craving ty-rant is added to the pile o peace ulprotesters and martyrs?

But i the U.S. took the Syrian upris-ing or what it is a complex situationin which there is a ragmented opposi-tion and clear divides along religiousand geographic lines it could not castitsel as the savior o a united peopledemanding democracy.

The West is not alone in its quest topresent this distorted view o the con-ict. The usually pro-Arab Al-Jazeera handled the situation in the same wayas The New York Times . It covers un old-ing events as i it controls the ate o adoomed dictatorship.

A basic knowledge o the Middle Eastsufces to grasp the geo-strategic in-terests o the Sunni Gul in weakeningthe in uence o Shia states in the re-gion. For one thing, the so-called ShiaCrescent- a group o neighbor countrieswith populations o power ul Shiitessuch as Syria, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon-ideologically irritates the orthodox

Sunni Muslim majority.Most importantly, however, those

countries are power ul economic part-ners to Russia and China, while theSunni Gul is an ally o the U.S. It re-mains highly doubt ul that, i the U.S.and its allies manage to intervene inSyria, they will have the interests o thepeople in mind. One ear held by many,rom ultra-le ist activists to pro-Assadsupporters is that the U.S. will makethe change o regime avorable to theirinterests, thereby alienating an impor-tant part o the population and encour-age urther violence.

A Fragmented RealityIt is no wonder that Syrian religious

and ethnic minorities which includeChristians, Druze and Kurds, many o whom have remained supportive o President Assad express ear over hisabdication o power. As pointed out byAisling Byrne rom the Con icts Forum,a Qatari- unded poll ound out that 55percent o Syrians did not want Presi-

dent Bashar al-Assad to resign. It re-mains unclear how the sampling wascarried out, but this data attests to thepresence o pro-Assad supporters in thecountry.

In addition, neighboring countrieswith a majority or signi cant Shiapopulations like Lebanon, Iraq and Iranare not ready to impose sanctions on

AUDREY ANN LAVALLEE

HOW THE MEDIA IS IGNORING SYRIAS COMPLEXITY

A HOUSE DIVIDED


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FEBRUARY2012 9

a major economic and ideological part-ner. Beyond the religious bond that tiesthese countries together and di erenti-ates them rom their Sunni Gul neigh-bors, these states have much in com-mon. Iranians, Iraqis and Lebanese allbear the scars o long-lasting civil wars

or revolutions, all directly or indirectlyuelled by outside interventions.

Those who dont identi y with regime

change are particularly susceptibleto the messages o the government-owned media, which constantly speakso the regimes duty to protect the peo-ple rom Sunni terroristsand Israeliconspiracy.

Brace or ImpactThere is some truth to Bashar al-

Assads prophetic statement last yearthat i his regime ell, Syria would be-come like a thousand A ghanistans.He might have only been attemptingto legitimize his stay in power, but thestatement should be kept in mind ascountries discuss intervention.

By presenting the Syrian uprising ina binary the brutal regime against itspeace ul protesters the media dehu-

manize the uprising. It ails to acknowl-edge the belie s o those who side withthe regime. I the media wants to as-sume the regime will all, it has to workto make sure that those who sided withthe government during the uprising mostly the minorities are not sent toBeirut or to the tombs or the wrongdo-ings of their dictators.

Iranians, Iraqis and Lebanese all bear the scars olong-lasting civil wars or revolutions, all directly

or indirectly ueled by outside interventions.

SunniShia

ChristianDruzee

ArabsKurdsOther

74%12%9%3%

90%9%1%

Religions:

Ethnic Groups:

SYRIAN DIVERSIT

P H O T O E D I T E D B Y A U D R E Y A N N L A V A L L E E


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11/32

FEBRUARY2012 11

the world, Lemke said. Sport buildsbridges between individuals andacross communities, providing a ertileground or sowing the seeds o devel-opment and peace.

While the UNOSDPs website out-lines several development challenges,strategies and projected outcomes,there is little-to-no evidence o actualresults. According to Wendy Harcourt,the Senior Programme Director andEditor o Development at the Societyor International Development, theUN is ollowing a top-down approachrather than a more speci ed approachthat utilizes local resources in its e ortto achieve the eight MDGs. Instead o ocusing on development e orts, sheclaims, the UN has become embroiled

in politics, losing sight o its originaldevelopment objectives.While organizations like the UN may

believe they are contributing positivelyto development, they may, in act, bepart o the problem. When develop-ment-through-sports programs areconducted on a small scale with real-istic expectations, they have the po-

tential to be success ul. The EducationFor All Youth Challenge Grant Programin Uganda, unded by USAID, produceda paper outlining the lessons learnedrom a small-scale development-through-sports e ort in two regions o northern, post-con ict Uganda: Lira andKumi.

The project partnered with The KidsLeague, a local NGO that works to-wards a world where all young peoplehave the opportunity to improve theirlives through access to sports and rec-reation.

The paper outlines several key as-pects in implementing a success uldevelopment-through-sports program.It recognizes that monitoring andevaluation e orts conducted by exter-

nal parties creates a loss o valuableopportunity. Instead, the organizationbelieves local community membersshould conduct these e orts. It alsounderstands that roles within the proj-ect and realistic goals should be clearlystated at the start.

Finally, the organization understandsthat di erent settings require di erent

approaches. Although a uni orm rame-work is recommended, implement-ers should be exible and anticipatecharacteristics and challenges uniqueto each situation. The Education ForAll Youth Challenge Grant Program inUganda is a glowing example o howdevelopment through sports, whenconducted properly, can be an e ectivemethod o achieving community devel-opment.

While goals such as education,healthy living, peace building, empow-erment and personal development allseem rather vague and ar-reaching,they can be achieved with develop-ment-through-sports programs.Yet given that the tactics and successeso development agencies lie on a con-tinuum, not all programs are capableo achieving positive results. While theintentions o organizations such as theUN, FIFA and the IOC are admirable,their project outcomes are requentlynot highly regarded and sometimesmay even do more harm than good. De-velopment-through-sports programs,like any development programs, mustbe care ully implemented.

Local, smaller-scale organizationshave enjoyed the most success whenimplementing these types o pro-grams. This is due to the act that theyunderstand the need to set realisticproject goals and the steps required toachieve positive outcomes. These or-ganizations avoid the disconnect thatensnares those organizations workingon larger development e orts; they donot get tied down in image and pub-licity. Because they are local, theseorganizations understand their com-munitys perception o sports and howbest to motivate the population. Usingthis knowledge they are able to attaingoals that all development-through-sports programs aspire to achieve insub-Saharan Africa.

P H O T O B Y C H E L S E A P H I P P S

Ugandan children play soccer in a community soccer game where dozens of spectators came towatch from the local village outside of Masaka in July 2010.


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12 Spring2012

Philosopher and author Alain de Bot-ton wants to bring religion to athe-ists. Dont let that con use you this isnot the same thing as bringing atheiststo religion.

In his 2012 book, Religion or Atheists,de Botton suggests that people shouldnot abandon the entire institution o religion just because they happen tonot believe in any o it. He thinks athe-ists can still bene t rom the particularworldviews and communal bonds asso-ciated with religious practice. Now he istrying to convert that hypothesis into areality, although his methods are turn-ing out to be quite controversial.

De Botton has plans to build a tem-ple or atheists in London, and he iscalling or similar buildings to be con-structed throughout Britain. The 46-me-ter-tall black tower will be dedicated to

the idea o perspective rather than toany speci c god or gods. It will unctionas the atheist version o a church or ca-thedral.

Why should religious people havethe most beauti ul buildings in theland? he said.

Some say that atheists could onlybene t rom the charitable community

that religion can create. Still, not every-one thinks the temple is a good idea.

Prominent atheist Richard Dawkinscriticized the construction plan, sayingthat the money required to build thetemple could be much better spent.

I you are going to spend money onatheism, you could improve secular ed-ucation and build non-religious schoolswhich teach rational, skeptical criticalthinking, Dawkins said in an interviewwith The Christian Post.

Dawkins has a point. But, beyondsimply stating that atheists dont needtemples, he has not addressed de Bot-tons underlying concerns.Whether ornot the temple would be a literally tre-mendous waste o money, it might beworthwhile to consider what de Bottonis trying to do.

De Botton has said, Religion puts you

with people who have nothing in com-mon except that youre human.It unites disparate individuals with

communal bonds through a sharedbelie or ideal. Religion is also knownor promoting service and outreach.Religious groups o en send memberso their community out into the worldto bring aid to those in need, ostering

a sense o greater social unity in theworld.

I the money that was to be put to-wards the temple was used to undregular atheist mission work o thisnature, de Bottons detractors would beharder pressed to nd ault with it. Thiswould provide the atheists involvedwith the kind o religious experience deBotton advocates, and it would put themoney to good use in the world. Thesetwo results arent completely distincteither.

The community resulting rom reli-gious experience can be a power ullypositive orce in the world long a er aunded service trip has nished. Reli-gion, as an institution that osters com-munal unity, can be used as a power ultool or collective action.

Its debatable whether or not athe-

ists need or desire this quasi-religiouscommunity, but de Botton at least be-lieves such a gap exists. But at its core,this controversy stems rom practicalconsiderations o what religion shouldsigni y or both individuals in their dailylives and communities in their mutualresponsibilities.

MICHAEL DICKSON

BRINGINGRELIGION

+ SECULARISMTOGETHERThe Divisive Natureo the Atheist Temple

P H O T O F R O M W I K I M E D I A C O M M O N S

Alain de Botton was the first to propose anatheist temple.


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14/32

14 Spring2012

GT: How did being at UNC andgrowing up during up the classical Civil Rights Movement shapeyour perception o the world?

Taylor: That really happened be ore Igot here. I was in rst grade during theBrown decision, and I graduated romhigh school during the Freedom Sum-mer, and started high school during theFreedom Rides. So it kind o ollowedme all the way growing up, and it wasscary. It changed the direction o my in-terests against my will, just by persis-tence. Everybody I knew was rightenedo this issue but pretending they knewall about it and had it in hand grown-ups, kids too.

Gradually, I got more and more as-cinated by the deep questions abouthow we could be intimate and yetstrangers with the people right acrosstown. Intimate in the sense that ourrock and roll music - nobody that I knewwould dream o courting their girl riendto anything but black music in the late1950s and early 60s - so we knew thatthere was something very primal andyet we were utterly estranged. All o these things eventually wore me downand I got interested in it.

Really, what happened at Caro-lina: I was interested in politics, I wasstunned by the power o the Civil RightsMovement. I wanted to know where ithad come rom, but by the time I got toCarolina it was giving way to Vietnam.And what that had in common, [wasthat] Vietnam was about reedom....[and yet] it was a huge issue here

what are the roots o democracy, andhow does it work?I always knew that what had changed

the direction o my interests was theCivil Rights Movement, even during theVietnam Era. And, quite rankly, I elt thewhite students who were activists overVietnam did a sloppy job o copying theCivil Rights Movement. We assumed

that we were important and that weshould get out there and raise hell, butI think we under-estimated how com-plex, how difcult and what an intel-lectual challenge the Civil Rights Move-ment had been. And or that reason Idont think we had the same disciplinethey had.

When I le Carolina, I went to gradu-ate school. I got into the movement alittle bit; in the summer o 69, a er Idle Carolina, I went back knowing thatId been so in uenced by the move-ment that it had made me drop mypre-med courses, take up history andgo into graduate school. I worked or asummer registering voters in the South,and that was my only real kind o ex-perience in the Civil Rights Movement,going to jail, being alone, in the middleo nowhere.

And I wrote about it in my diary. Be-cause I didnt know anything else to dowith this experience, by mysel in thistiny, remote place where people wereterri ed o registering to vote, even in1969. So I wrote a diary o it, and oneo my pro essors sent it to a magazinein Washington that had just started, TheWashington Monthly , and they startedpublishing excerpts rom it. It was theonly thing I had ever written not as-signed by a teacher, and I was notwriting it to be published. But it wasthe birth o my career as a writer, be-cause when I nished graduate school,I didnt know what to do, and the mag-azine that had published those diarieso ered me a job. So I came through Car-olina in part on a path moving toward

a career grounded in history and poli-tics and discovered writing by accidentalong the way.

What are the lingering issuesrom the Civil Rights Movementthat you see today?

Well, the Civil Rights Movement is at

its base about the ull promise o de-mocracy; what Dr. King called, equalsouls and equal votes. What is it thatwe have that make us, that shouldmake us, relate together as equals inessence, not in attainments, but in es-sence, in the sense that our votes countthe same?

I dont want to jump to my collegesports issue, but I think that we do notsee college athletes as equal partici-pants. A lot o people think thats a veryodd, i not ridiculous, place to ocussympathy because college athletes areso glori ed. But 99 percent o collegeathletes are anonymous people whogive their bodies and wind up work-ing in McDonalds. And we dont reallythink about them very much. There areantidemocratic practices littering oursociety.

What do you think that we can dobetter?

I think that we can start by teach-ing American history better, civics bet-ter: what it means to be an Americancitizen, what is the promise o govern-ment, how did it develop?

To me, the great imbalance is...toview properly in the light o history theCivil Rights Movement and the conse-quences or the womens movement,the Gay Rights Movement, the GlobalMovement, [the] treatment o the dis-abled--these basic things [that aim] torecognize the equality o equal soulsand equal votes...ought to make peoplethink, realize the tremendous promise

o democratic citizenship. Amazing mir-acles were made rom that period, andinstead I think most people are curdledagainst the promise o government, be-cause we dont want to think about theblessings that ow rom that.

You know, I always talk to South-ern white men, saying i youve got adaughter, your daughter stands on the


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shoulders o that movement, becauseuntil the Civil Rights Movement gotpeople thinking about equal souls andequal votes, your daughter was exclud-ed rom Chapel Hill. Their jobs were list-ed separately in the newspaper underHelp wanted, emale. Ninety percento them were or secretaries, nursesand teachers, and the most commonjob in The New York Times or womenwas Girl Friday. And thats only 40years ago.

The Civil Rights Movement improvedthe world, made the South rich and gen-erated blessings all across the boardor what the true promise o democracyis, and yet somehow, weve managedto convince a large portion o Americathat those things didnt happen, ori they did, it wasnt a product o thatmovement and we dont need to thinkabout them--that there is no promise o democracy, [and] basically that govern-ment just gets in the way and causesproblems. And thats because we donthave our history straight. It allows cyni-cism to ourish.

What do you think UNCs role inpromoting democracy could be?

There ought to be more courses ondemocracy, [on] the democratic pro-cess as an intellectual challenge. See,when the country was ounded, peoplethought that democracy was a pro-ound intellectual, spiritual, psychologi-cal challenge, and the people o theCivil Rights Movement thought exactlythat same thing.

We tend to think democracy is as easyas slapping a ag on your shoulder, andsaying you understand democracy, andyou do it by osmosis. And we do inherita lot o incredible democratic habits, buti you dont understand them, you cantbreathe li e into them.

There ought to be more classes ondemocracy, on civics, on violence.P

HOTOFROMWIKIMEDIACOMMO

NS

Taylor Branch, who has long been a Civil Rights advocate, came totalk at UNC this semester.

...The Civil Rights Movement is at its base about the ull promise o

democracy ; what Dr. King called, equal souls andequal votes.

-Taylor Branch


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Theres no topic more salient than vio-lence, the role o violence in the world,in politics and [in] our culture and ouramilies. Were all around violence, andnon-violence, and yet very ew univer-sities that I know o study them.

Is violence synonymous with poweror is it not? I its not, why do we con-demn violence everywhere it appears,in a household between men andwomen, parents and children, out inthe street, international a airs ev-erywhere, we condemn it, and yet weturn to it, and we also believe in it.That to me is the most intriguing intel-lectual conundrum in the world, andits not studied in universities.

And what should students rolesbe? How can the engage withproblems today?

Find things they care about, debate

them and take risks to nd out i any-body else cares about them. By takingrisk, I mean, make yoursel uncom ort-able a little to say, Do you eel about thislike I do? Ask somebody thats outsideyour normal circle. Because only i youtake a risk like that, some sort o leap o aith, can you discover that Wow, thereis a commonality across that. Thats

a surprise.Thats what a movement is;thats how a movement starts.

You need to explore. But it all startswith studying and then nding thingsyou care about. And I dont care i its theembargo on Cuba or immigration policyor the environment, or there are lots[o ] areas in which sustainable sel -gov-ernment and building public trust are indanger in modern li e. There are plentyo areas to look into.

What do you think o the OccupyMovement?

Its an early movement; its a symp-tomatic movement o people recogniz-ing and eeling that something unda-mental is out o sorts. I dont think itsreally coherent yet as to what it is orwhat the remedy is. I know Ill get in alot o trouble or this, but I dont care:in some respects, it is like the Tea Party

Movement.The really important part o the Tea Par-ty Movement is that people on the otherside o the political spectrum are sayingthere is something undamentally out-o -whack here... People just reachingout think o the Tea Party as the ound-ing o what is good about America...butit hasnt really developed a whole lot o

coherency beyond that; its basically justan anti-government movement. It hasnteven aced the elementary act that the[Boston] Tea Party was about revoltingagainst the oreign government, notabout building reedom here. And build-ing the reedom here was the more sig-ni cant and the more difcult task.

I give the Tea Party credit or sayingtheres something wrong, and we needto go back to basics, but I dont thinktheyve gone very ar back in their basics.I think its just very sel sh in the sensethat its not trying to... gure out, Howdo we relate to these very undamentalvalues and how do we promote them ina way that will build a movement?

And the Occupy Movement is similar. Idont think its really gelled.

It seems like being a historianshapes the way you view currentevents. When you were doing the

Clinton tapes, how was it di erent writing history as it happenedthan writing about the Civil RightsMovement, which was already inthe past?

I was still writing the King book whenthe president asked me, in strictest con-dence, i I would consider helping him

P H O T O B Y G I H A N I D I S S A N A Y A K E

Taylor Branch offers greetings at the book signing.


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make an oral history because he didntthink he was going to preserve hisphone conversations and he didnt thinkthe material or good history was beingpreserved. And I agreed to do it, withtremendous misgivings, not about thevalue o what he was doing but aboutwhat the proper role was or me.

I knew him. Im meeting late at nighttrying to get him to put on the recordthose things that were not already onthe record--that is to say those thingsthat are too sensitive to say--but I had toget him to trust me enough even to putthem on the tape then. Then he turnsaround and asks me what I think weought to do, and I have con icting roles.What do you do i youre trying to get thepresident to put this stu down, but hesalso being president, talking about be-ing president--hes asking you or youradvice, and i you give him your adviceand make him mad, will he shut downthe history project? It was an adventure.

I was disappointed, and Ill say as anauthor youre not supposed to say thisas an author that the book, regard-less o its merits or demerits, presenteditsel as a record o what it was like to bepresident. [But because] Clinton was sopoliticized, it was inevitably reviewed aseither a de ense o Clinton or an attackon Clinton. A lot o his riends thought

it was an attack because I included per-sonal stu . Im trying to take readersinto what its like to be president, and i the presidents daughter comes in andasks or advice on her homework, thatis part o being president, because parto being president is that youre still aather.He didnt like the act I had Chelsea and

Hillary in there Hillary coming in andsaying she had just had a dream, andcan I help her interpret it, and that sorto thing. He thought it was degrading.Shes secretary o state now, and youreputting in things like that about hercoming in wearing cold cream? [Clintonwould say.] I told him that I though thatwas part o the realism, the whole pointo this thing.

Whats your avorite spot on campus?

Un ortunately, I lived on South cam-

pus, so I cant really say any o thats myavorite. My memories are o the Cokemachines being dropped out Ehring-haus, out o the window, so thats notvery romantic. To me, my avorite spot oncampus is really [the path rom] Frank-lin Street to the library. Whenever I walkthose steps, I just think theyre per ect.

Most o the restaurants are long-since

closed. I heard the Rathskeller wasabout to be reopened, but then I heardit was not about to be reopened. I wouldlove to go there. Ill never orget thatswhere I was when there was a hushin the Rathskeller, and the waiters wentthrough and said that Martin Luther Kingwas just shot in Memphis.

A month later in May o 68, I le ChapelHill or my dra physical and stopped inIndianapolis to work or the presidentialcampaign and spent the whole nightwith Bobby Kennedy. He ran in the [pres-idential] campaign and grabbed me atmidnight in the airport and said, Wouldyou talk to me about why students likeyou came up here and worked or Mc-Carthy? because I had already been[working] or Jean McCarthy; he was anantiwar candidate.

[Kennedy] had a huge entourage, andthey opened up ...whatever the nameo the break ast joint was, and rom 12until almost dawn, until 5 oclock in themorning, we argued. Thats May. Still astudent at Chapel Hill. Going to take mydra physical. Graduated in June. He wasshot exactly a month later. So our littlemeeting was hal way between Kinggetting shot and him getting shot rightwhen I graduated rom Carolina. So 68was an epochal year or good reason.You had a sense o having your teethrattled. Everyone did. People knew thesewere historic times.

Do you have a sense now o having your teeth rattled?

I think now is a little bit more like the

1950s. I think theres a sense o perco-lation and a sense that either ominousor good things can happen, dependingon how people react. That people aregroping around, trying to gure outhow to organize themselves and whereto assert themselves. No, I dont thinkthat this is, in spite o 9/11 even, I dontthink this an epochal time. Were mark-

We tend to think democracy is as

easy as slapping a ag on yourshoulder , and saying you understand

democracy -Taylor Branch


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18 Spring2012

THE DECLINE OFMOBILITY IN AMERICA

Stop Feeling Sorry or the MiddleClass! Theyre Doing Just Fine.

So proclaims the headline o a columnby Scott Winship that appeared in TheNew Republic on Feb. 7. Winship con-tends that a number o conventionalstatistical measures o economic stabil-ityunemployment, or examplehaveoverstated the plight o the Americanmiddle class. He reminds his readersthat median household income hasrisen by as much as 35 to 55 percent inthe last 30 years.

Indeed, the Economic Mobility Projecto the Pew Charitable Trusts nds thatabsolute economic mobilitythe ca-pacity o one generation to out-earn itsorerunneris alive and well in America.Most o us will earn more than our par-ents did.

But the middle class might havegrounds or discontent nonetheless.

Economic contentment, a er all, isabout more than owning a re rigera-tor and an Xbox. It entails a sense o securitya legitimate aith that thenext medical bill will not necessitatere-mortgaging your home. Its the aith,also, that your nancial inability to sendyour child to an elite university will notspell his or her doom. It has something

to do, there ore, with relative economicmobility, or the ease with which we areable to transcend our economic birth-right.

The able o making it in Americais predicated upon the assurance thatwe live in a classless society, at leastrelative to our European counterpartsin their white gloves and peasant rags.We work our way to nancial com ortwith elbow grease, not upon coattails.

Thats a trite summation, but it under-lies a genuine conviction that persistsamong Americans: the InternationalSocial Survey Program ound that weremore optimistic than other countriessurveyed about our chances o gettingahead and less inclined to believe thatthe government should help us alongthe way.

As it turns out, our optimism may notbe entirely well- ounded. Reports over

the past ve or six years indicate notonly that American society is indeedstrati ed, but also that class-traversingtrajectories o the Henry Ford or Hora-tio Alger ilk are no longer viable aspi-rations or the average red-bloodedAmerican (i ever they were).

Two 2006 studies, one by Swedisheconomist Markus Jantti and another

by Canadian economist Miles Corak, de-termined that sons earnings are moreclosely tied to athers earnings in theU.S. than in Canada and much o Eu-rope. According to Janttis ndings, 42percent o American men whose atherswere in the bottom h o the earningdistribution will remain in the bottomh themselves. The country with the

next-lowest mobility? Britain, at 30 per-cent.

A September 2011 Pew EMP reportsuggests that were not only con-strained by our parents earnings; wemay now be condemned to all behindthem. According to the report, a third o Americans raised in the middle classi.e., those between the 30th and 70thpercentiles o the income distributionall out o the middle as adults.

The report also concludes that one o the primary determinants o a middle-

class individuals downward mobility isa lack o higher education. This is par-ticularly troubling in a political environ-ment where college tuition hikes, likethe one recently approved by the UNCsystems Board o Governors, have be-come widely accepted as inevitable.Since those raised in lower earningbrackets are likely to stay there without

LIBBY RODENBOUGH

DISCONTENT IN THE MIDDLE CLASS:


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FEBRUARY2012 19

the aid o a college education, increas-ing education costs only orti y a cyclethat is already deeply embedded in theAmerican socioeconomic landscape.

And the recession, which has erodedhome ownership, especially amonglow-earning households, may intensi ythe trend. A separate EMP report romDecember 2011 details the positive cor-relation between housing wealth andcollege enrollment and graduation. Thestudy asserts that increasing home eq-uity rom zero to $35,000 among low-and middle-income amilies increasedtheir college attendance rate by morethan 210 percent.

Considering that housing is the pri-mary source o wealth or low- andmiddle-income American householdstoday and that amilies who experiencegains in wealth are more likely to sendtheir children to college, the correlation

makes sense. But the implication is dis-com orting: diminished post-recessionhome ownership could oreseeably ur-ther immobilize the less- ortunate chil-dren in the U.S.

Winship recognizes that being bornpoor in America puts one much urtherbehind than being born poor in Canadaor Denmark. But he chastises politi-

cians and media pundits or their e ortsto scare the middle class into thinkingthey are as bad o as the poorby hisestimation, the middle class doesntneed our sympathies, and, in directingattention toward the middle, were ne-glecting those at the very bottom.

But one need notand perhaps can-notdivorce the anxieties o the verypoor rom those o the vast middleclass to recognize the devaluation o the American Dream. As the SeptemberEMP report conveys, being born into

the middle class does not ensure secu-rity. And as college tuition increases dis-

proportionately to wealth, the meansby which a member o the middle classmay shore up his or her economic sta-bility are vanishing.

So while Winship may be entirely cor-rect in challenging our statistical meth-ods o evaluating wealth and economicviability, he may be missing a moremeaning ul point: were operating un-

der assumptions about opportunityin this country that may no longer berooted in reality.

This is not to say that the Americanmiddle class is su ering impoverish-ment or to make conclusive statementsabout the inherent value o economicmobility. It is only to question the no-tions upon which the American Dreamis basedthat ours is a classless soci-ety, that all Americans have equal pros-pects, that the American experimenthas somehow triumphed over patri-

monial entitlements and handicaps.These notions are relevant not only

to the very poor but to all who investtheir lives and labor in a political andeconomic system that seems less andless inclined to return its dividends tothem.

And as college tuition increases disproportionatelyto wealth, the means by which a member o themiddle class may shore up his or her economic

stability are vanishing.

P H O T O F R O M F L I C K R C R E A T I V E C O M M O N S

A modern day portrait of the rags-to-riches Horatio Alger myth.


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DOD to join the chorus o voices advo-cating or re orm o the system.

Critics also point to the high salariesand lucrative stock options or or-pro tcollege executives as evidence o theinherent aws o the or-pro t collegesystem. While large bonuses are not acriminal act, they do not help endearthe industry to its critics.

High Compensation, Low ValueAn investigative report by the Huf-

ington Post ound that the highestpaid or-pro t college executives werecompensated on average more than$6 million while the highest paid Ivy-League school employees were paid onaverage just over $1.5 million. The high-

est paid public school employees werecompensated much less--an average o around $800,000.

Given the many government reports,agencies and senators, such as U.S.Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) who led manyo the hearings into the colleges whichhad advocated or re orm, the successo the or-pro t college industrys lob-

bying e ort took some critics by sur-prise. The Department o Education,however, maintains that its retreat waspart o the natural process.

The initial restrictions would haveunnecessarily eliminated many, manygood schools along with the bad,Justin Hamilton, a Department o Edu-

cation spokesman told The New YorkTimes.

The For Proft College LobbyBut i the industrys lobbyists were

the primary reason the restrictionschanged, then it represents a realitycheck or Obamas pledge to marginal-ize the role o lobbyists in Washington.

A er taking ofce in 2009, the presi-dent banned gi s rom lobbyists andenacted rules that, among other re-strictions, barred ormer governmentemployees rom becoming lobbyists

or two years a er leaving governmentservice.

The success o lobbying e orts, suchas the or-pro t college industrys re-cent drive, show that lobbyists still holdenormous sway in Washington powercircles and are able to change legisla-tion like the administrations or-pro t

college regulations.Penn State Pro essor Donald Heller

told The New York Times that the indus-try had succeeded.

This was the beachhead the colleges

were going to de end, and they weresomewhat success ul in that they gotthe regulations weakened, Heller said.The Department o Education reallybent to the lobbying push.

While large bonuses are not a criminal act, theydo not help endear the industry to its critics.

The Pittsburgh campus of DeVry University, one of the for-profit colleges found to have beensignificantly under-performing.



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22 Spring2012

Although public perception - which isheavily in uenced by a sensational-ized media - more likely considers theworld to be a more dangerous placethan ever be ore, research and statisticsshow quite a di erent conclusion. Thatconclusion is much more optimisticabout the current level o global secu-rity thanks to the e ects o democraticpeace, nuclear deterrence, internationalinstitutions and the changing incen-tives involved with economic interde-pendence in the international economy.

But unless innovative solutions areound to emerging problems, the uture

state o global security might not con-tinue to enjoy such progress.

Despite past actual strides towardsglobal peace, new interrelated actorssuch as climate change, overpopulationand resource scarcity are currently ontrack to be game-changers or interna-tional human security in the upcomingcentury. The world might be guring outhow to live more peace ully togetherwithin the nation-state paradigm, butnew security issues linked to these lat-est actors threaten to make the worldin the 21st century more dangerousthan it has been in the past.

IS THE WORLD

BECOMING A MOREDANGEROUS PLACE?Despite progress on resolving traditional security issues,new threats of climate change, overpopulation and re-

source scarcity are emerging.

CHELSEA PHIPPS



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24 Spring2012

ably only early signs o what will be anupsurge in violence in the decades tocome. According to Homer-Dixon, pos-sible causes o violent con ict relatedto environmental change include green-house-induced climate change, strato-spheric ozone depletion, the degrada-tion and loss o agricultural land, thedegradation and removal o orests, thedepletion and pollution o resh watersupplies and the depletion o sheries.

Scarcity issues heighten the pressureon institutions like the state, while si-multaneously reducing their ability tomeet those demands. Alongside un-equal resource distribution and demo-graphic actors caused by overpopula-tion, scarcity promises wide-spread andsystemic problems. The violent con ictproduced as a result tends to be persis-tent and di use and can lead to eitherragmentation o states or authoritarianregimes.

OverpopulationIn addition to contributing to resource

scarcity, overpopulation is also worry-ing in that it acilitates the spread o disease through overcrowding, a lack o

adequate sanitation and undue stresson public health systems. In ectiousdiseases are global problems now thattechnological advances make travelingto all corners o the planet much easier,and global problems require global re-sponses.

Somewhat discouragingly, GarrettHardin argues in his 1968 article TheTragedy o the Commons that over-population is an intractable problemthat cannot be resolved with a technicalsolution because he says that a niteworld can, mathematically, only supporta nite population.

Hardin cites issues such as the protec-tion o national parks, pollution lead-ing to climate change and the reedomto reproduce as ideal examples o thetragedy o the commons. He discussesthe obstacle o our inability to legislatetemperance and suggests that the onlysolution is to recognize the necessity o relinquishing our reedom to breed.

Reasons or HopeThere is still hope or this century. The

impending threats o overpopulation, re-source scarcity and climate change that

have already begun to produce con ictare not signatures on a global deathwarrant. Instead, they are new challeng-es. Just as the human race has oundways to overcome many o the securityissues that have threatened us be ore,we have the capacity to overcome theseas well. Problems requiring collective ac-tion are not intractable, and the state o global a airs is never static. Many devel-oping countries today have ertility ratesbelow what a population must have tomeet the replacement rate.

Global development and advances insexual and reproductive health and edu-cation could lead to a sharp decline inthe global rate o population growth.Technology and innovation could over-come the traditional issues that ariserom resource scarcity. It could also,along with global awareness and ad-vocacy campaigns that lead to dramaticchanges in li estyles around the world,e ect a reversal in the human-producedclimate change. Theres hope that theseseemingly intractable issues, might notbe so intractable a er all.

On June 13, 2009, thousands of people in Melbourne, Australia rallied for action on climate change.


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Visual VoicesVisualizing Human Rights

Visualizing Human Rights is a photo essay compiled rom the winners o the Visual Voices: Human Rights Photo Contesthosted by Advocates or Human Rights (AHR) as a part o Human Rights Week. During this annual event, many UNC-Cha-pel Hill student organizations, including AHR, STAND, Campus Y, and UNC Amnesty International, come together to promoteand educate about human rights issues both abroad and right here at home. Events included a Di-Phi debate on re ugeerights, a presentation by STAND in the pit on the history o genocide, a presentation on human rights photography by DavidJohnson, ounder o Silent Images, called Seeing Poverty Through a New Lens, a human rights dinner on ood justice, anda Buckley Public Service Scholars skills training on Translating Human Rights: Empowering Movements through Policy bythe Roosevelt Institute. The week ended with a spoken word per ormance by multiple campus and community groups inSpeak Up: Spoken Word or Human Rights. The week o events and the human rights photography contest were intendedto inspire action and encourage social awareness about these issues. The winners o the photography contest were select-

ed based on their photographic quality, poignancy, variety o content, and ability to capture a human rights issue visually.

In a peaceful moment by a lake,a young girl fishes alongside her

friend with disabilities. This photopromotes the idea of equality

for persons with disabilitiesand insists they should not be

ignored, but given access to thesame rights as those who areable-bodied because they arecapable of accomplishing the

same things.

1st. Kelsie Mitchell, 15Waiting Around for a Change


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26 Spring2012

2 nd. Hannah Nemer, 14 UntitledA child in Uganda in 2011 has eyes lit up with excite-ment. The United Nations recognizes the significance ofchildhood through the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

During a Global Water Brigadestrip to Honduras, 11 N.C.high school students wentto Honduras to implement asafe water system in a smallcommunity called Guaricayan.Many residents of Guaricayan didnot have access to free flowingwater from faucets, and somefaucets went dry for days.

3 rd. Matt Lee, 15Untitled


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4 th. Christyn Gerber, 13 Advantageous LimbsA young woman in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India performs bodycontortions on the street in the hopes of earning some smallincome. Her gender and lack of education make obtainingany other type of work very difficult.

A street boy in Uganda fromThe Street Child Projects art

camp shows off a piece of hisartwork in 2009. The Street Child

Project uses the arts to educateand rehabilitate Ugandan streetchildren. Street children making

art is a huge way for them tocommunicate to others their pain.Street children are at the bottom

of society in many countries, oftentimes unseen and voiceless.

Rachel Crawford, 12Untitled


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28 Spring2012

In a peaceful moment by a lake,

a young girl fishes alongside herfriend with disabilities. This photopromotes the idea of equalityfor persons with disabilities andinsists that they should not beignored, but given access to thesame rights as those who areable-bodied because they arecapable of accomplishing thesame things.

Erica OBrien, 13

Seth Rose, 15 MainstreetTaken on Main Street in Durham in 2010, a rare encounteroccurs between two extremes: a homeless man scroungingfor enough change to catch the bus and live another day,and a young professional with her whole life in front of her.

The Childrens Crusade


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Erica OBrien, 13 Hometown RevolutionOn Feb 10, 2012, students protest tuition increases in North Carolina uni-versities. More than 100 students from across the state united to ensurethat education, a right recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, remains accessible to all people.

A child in the town ofGuaricayan, Honduras

learns about environmentalconservation as one facet ofensuring clean, safe drinking

water, a basic human right.

Matt Lee, 15Save the Forest


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30 Spring2012

Cece Peters, 14 Water Fountain

An eight year old boy in the small town ofSanto Domingo de Guzman, El Salvadordrinks water from a water fountain on oneof the only paved roads. Not everyone hasaccess to clean water and even in the iso-lated town, water is one of the most impor-tant commodity to an El Salvadorian family,among farmland, education and religion.

A Buddhist monk and a touristinteract in July 2011 in the

courtyard of Tuol Sleng, theformer prison of the Khmer

Rouge during the Cambodiangenocide.

Rachel Myrick, 13 Untitled

Zoe Wolszen, 14 Standing Strong

This woman has been chased out of her home,beaten nearly to death, almost put in jail, andconstantly threatened and harassed, all by herhusband, only because she wanted to send herchildren to school. She has fought every step ofthe way to gain access to people that can help her,and walked more than 50 miles to tell her story.This image is about the right to safety and securityin your own home, but also the right to make yourstory known; the right to speak and be heard.


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A young boy, in Egypt on theeve of the Arab Spring riots inJanuary 2011, is exposed on a

dangerous road in the rain.

Kelly Bolick, 12 Untitled

Hannah Nemer, 14 Untitled

Access to clear water is a basic hu-man right, as it is a prerequisite tosustainable, healthy communities.This boy joins his community in fill-ing jerrycans with clean water.

In Guaricayan, a small town inHonduras, in 2011, a child who has

lived in this this town with very limitedaccess to clean water and sufficient

food is seen sharing his snack with astray dog.

Radhika Ghodasara, 15Mans Best Friend


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