Chapel Hill Resident Critical of UNC's Actions Toward Town

On reading Jon Harris' editorial supporting UNC's bullying of the Town of Chapel Hill ("Futile Actions," June 21), one can only conclude that it is a good thing The Daily Tar Heel editors were not around in the 1780s.

You might well have sought to model the U.S. government after the World Wrestling Federation, your source for analyzing town-gown relations. As it is, American politics are based on democracy not on the rule of the brawniest.

Unfortunately, the DTH editors are joined in their brutishness by State Sen. Tony Rand who would remove the democratic rights of Chapel Hill citizens to protect their community.

Rand is part of the elite senatorial clique the director of the N.C. chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill recently characterized as "schoolyard bullies." Our own state senator, Ellie Kinnaird, told the Independent Weekly (June 6) that "you have to realize it is not a democracy over there."

It's not a democracy at the University either, where administrators brace at interference from democratic entities like the town of Chapel Hill.

The University's silver-tongued, authoritarian bureaucrats think nothing of such tactics as bait-and-switch, behind-the-scenes manipulation, and outright dishonesty to achieve their ends.

That Sen. Rand thinks he is serving the state by colluding with such tactics is sad indeed.

Your assertion that the University ought to "grow whenever and wherever it wants to" embraces the short-sightedness of the administration.

Chancellor Moeser wants the University to be a "world-class" university.

In the 21st century, "world-class" is already beginning to be understood as that which respects social and environmental processes and limits.

This is the lesson that, for all their high-falutin' consultants, UNC administrators may have to learn from their pesky neighbors in Chapel Hill.

But, you are correct that Chapel Hill is woefully outmatched if this issue plays out as a power struggle.

If it does go in that direction, our state constitution, ostensibly designed to protect the less powerful, will have failed dismally to do so.

Someday, the DTH editors may appreciate that the Chapel Hill residents whose efforts against the assault of a massive state bureaucracy help to protect the democratic rights of all citizens of North Carolina.

Finally, as for the UNC growth plan, surely the University's consultants could come up with a "world-class" plan that includes the premise "we shall achieve our goals without threatening the neighborhoods of Chapel Hill."

I urge the DTH to change its editorial stance and encourage the University to seek a win-win solution.

Dan Coleman Chapel Hill The length rule was waived.