By Anthony Fleg 

As Sicko, Michael Moore’s new “comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on Earth” prepares to open in a few days, I am more and more convinced that our current health care system is truly sick, overrun with profit motives that are like aggressive cancers, waiting to eat us alive.

As a medical student here at UNC, I appreciate the focus on health care reform by the presidential candidates as a good sign that there is willpower for change. However, the content and framing of this conversation, focusing on the “problem” of the uninsured, fails to address the root problem: A health care system driven by unchecked profit motives will not produce equity in health.  More »

By Erica Eisdorfer

My colleague at the Bull’s Head read The Pesthouse by the novelist Jim Crace and really loved it. We often appreciate the same sorts of books, so armed with her advice I took it home, where my husband, as is his wont, snatched it away and wouldn’t let me have it back. He loved it. When he’d finished it and I was able to get my hands on it, he went to The Bookshop and bought a used copy of Being Dead, also by Jim Crace.

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Dr. Randall Williams Evans, 51, died unexpectedly on July 6 at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC, surrounded by family and many friends who will miss him dearly.

Randy was born to Robert B. and Elizabeth N. Evans on September 1, 1955 in Minneapolis, MN. Growing up in Atlanta, Randy attended Christ the King School and Westminster Academy. He graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1977, received a masters degree from Trinity College in San Antonio, and received a PhD from United States International University in San Diego. He obtained a post-doctoral fellowship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Lowry Matthews Betts, 76, died peacefully at his home, Araby Farm, near Pittsboro on Monday, July 9, 2007.

A native of Columbia, SC, he was born September 20, 1930, the third of four sons of Erskine Moore Betts and Ellen Dendy Betts, who predeceased him.

He attended the Columbia public schools and graduated from the University of South Carolina with an A.B. degree in Art and Philosophy in 1953. On July 5, 1952, he was married to the former Doris Waugh of Statesville, NC and they moved to Chapel Hill where he entered the School of Law. A member of the Law Review, he received his J.D. degree there in 1956. That fall he began the practice of law in Sanford, NC with J.C. Pittman and W.W. Station, in the firm which became Pittman, Station and Betts.
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Gary Hunter Williams, 46, of Chapel Hill, born July 28, 1960, fought tremendously throughout his battle with colon cancer for 23 months. Gary lost his battle and was called home on July 7, 2007 at Durham Regional Hospital.

Gary was a 1978 graduate of Chapel Hill School and went on to graduate from Vance Granville Community College Basic Law Enforcement Training Academy. He joined the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in December 1994. In addition, Gary and his family owned and operated Bodyworks Fitness and Aerobics and Dollar Hut in Hillsborough for a number of years.

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