8 BLACK INK February 22, 1977
l/IEM/POINT
Kathy Gabriel
A promising future — iVs up to you
With the coming of spring semester
comes election time; the time we as BSM
members dutifully cast our votes for those
persons we feel will represent our better
interests.
With these thoughts come voices, voices
of excuses, complaints, and more excuses.
All we manage to see are the visions of
our rougher times and faults in our
representatives for the things they didn’t
do. We seem to forget that we’re the ones
who elected them to office through our
voting (or our non-voting).
But even more the fact that we could
have run for those positions ourselves.
As usual, we cop that trite excuse that
"we don’t have time.” But how do we know
that we don’t have time when we haven’t
inquired as to how much time it will take to
efficiently fulfill the duties of BSM of
ficers?
Do we ever stop to say “we don’t have
time” on Friday and Saturday nights while
we party from 10-2? When Good Times and
The Jeffersons come on television every
week do we scream “we don’t have time?”
Do we holler “no time” when there’s a
crisis and the administration is trying to
deny us that one step forward we’ve
planted just to push us two steps back
wards? Do we tell our buddies in the Union
that “we don’t have time” when we
congregate there daily between and after
classes?
It’s time we realized that those who do
decide to hold a position, do so to share
their talents, abilities, and time for the
betterment of you (BSM), and not for the
title or glorification (or idle complaints)
they receive. Those who hold office are
just as much students as we are. Believe it
or not, they have classes, unreasonable
professors, problems, and QP averages to
worry about too. They’re at Carolina for
the same purpose as you are—to receive
an education. But they realize that im
portant aspects in gaining an education
are sharing respwnsibilities and learning
to work with people. Academics alone
won’t make you successful in this chaotic
world which we have to share with so
Senior reflections
many others.
So this spring semester, let’s change the
tone of our voices and decide first if the
problem is that we won’t have the time, or
that we just won’t take the time. The BSM
is you, me, and what we make or don’t
make of it. It’s up to us to make strong the
areas in which we are weak instead of
sitting back while outgoing officers almost
beg people to take over their offices after
they step down.
And remember that even if you’re not
elected to the position you ran for, all the
new officers will need people on their
committees to help make 1977-78 the
greatest year experienced-by BSM.
The door is always open.
Letter
Dear Editor:
‘Ain’t your business’
Responsibility lacking?
As me half of an interracial couple here on campus, I thank you wholeheartedly
for your stand on interracial dating. The issue is not, as you surmised quite well,
whether a person should seek out another not of his race (in the majority of cases I
have known or observed, the person is not seeking—he just discovers), but rather
an issue of “it ain’t none of your business anyhow.,”
One question, off the record, of course, which I should like to direct personally to
Ms. Shackleford; How do you justify yourself condoning what you condemn in
another? Namely, Ms. Shackleford, how do you defend your racism?
A. Regan
By OVETA FULLER
Staff Writer
I/)oking back over the past three and one
half year.s, approaching the goal of
graduation. I ponder over changes . . .
changes within and without. . . some good,
some not so sood. Through this column 1
hope to share impressions of the event.s
making a rojlege experience.
Remember when and smile or sigh with
me.
If we pride ourselves on being the most
"together" representatives of our people,
then there remains little hope for the re.st.
Plaudits go to Ward, Elliot
Plaudits go to Bernadine Ward, tireless
news editor of “Black Ink” who also
served as a coordinator of Black Pre-
Orientation in the fall and performs all of
her duties with vigor and industriousness.
... to Spurgeon Fields, Hinton James
RA whose love for humor and good times is
exceeded only by his love for people.
... to Campus “Y” Director Edith
Elliot, whose pleasant demeanor and soft-
spoken leadership has been a plus to the
entire campus community.
... to BSM Morrison Representative
Cj’nthia Baker, for her efforts in con
tacting neighboring campuses for an
upcoming conclave of Black campus
organizations.
... to Chapel Hill Newspaper employees
Sharon Broome and Jim Grimsley for
their patience and skill in coping with
missed deadlines and missing articles to
somehow still paste each issue of “Black
Ink” together.
... to alumnus Larry Mixon, whose
involvement in the Black community was
paralleled by few when he was here, and
whose concern still stretches from as far
as Washington, D C.
... to BSM Chairperson Jackie Lucas,
whose concern for the welfare of the Black
student populace becomes more and more
admirable each day.
... to BSM Freshman Representatives
Denzil Daye and Ike Cummings, both of
whom have shown promise as future
campus leaders.
Obviously, a lot of changes are needed.
I.ack Ilf individual responsibility
exhibits itself constantly. We are plagued
with a "lateness, don't care, let somebody
else do it" attitude. College is four years of
sitting on our ends,
f’or instance, four years ago in L97:i.
■Students were complaining about a lack of
\isiting Black artists. We're still com
plaining and it’s almost 1980.
Cl’time is still now as then. (Just notice
who walks into class ten minutes late or
check the starting tniie of an\ Black
meeting affair, i
Peopl(' take the attitude. "Well things
have alwa>'s h‘en this way, and I'm only
nne person, sn what can I dd'.’" But yon can
1m' iin time.
You can speak out. Yon can dn what
needs to Ix' done and take the respon
sibility to folldw through.
Though small, a simple ge.sture such as
being on time tells a lot about your in-
tegritv. Fnllownig through on what you
said you'd dn shows I'naturity and
dependability, traits whose \alues don't
change with time
•Apathy Is a (k’adly luxuiy that we can
not afford. Changing anythinu begins not
in numbers but with one person with the
t;uts to get started,
I.et it be vou.
Roots V 7; search for family
by Bernadine Ward
How should we look upon “Roots,”
a program that evoked angry, sad,
revengeful, proud responses from its
audience’’ Should it remembered
as just another good piece of en-
tertainment'* Should we put it in the
recesses of our minds and remember
it only upon hearing chance remarks
about it"’ If we, you, me, us. Black
people, forget Kunta Kinte or Chicken
George, if we never read Haley’s
book, let us always remember the
importance of its theme - the family.
For it is the family that gives us
being it is the family that becomes
our first learning center, and it is the
family that defines our existence,
whether it be negative or positive.
Frequently, we look at the Black
community in a detached manner-not
fully realizing that the family
produces members of this com
munity. Too often we forget that the
family is the core of the Black com
munity. We forget each time we don’t
reach out to a loved one, each time we
fail to convey our concern, each time
we are absent when needed. We forget
it each time we expect, indeed
demand, that institutions provide
total physical, moral, and spiritual
well-being for our children.
Not surprisingly, “Roots” has
encouraged many of us to search for
our geneaologies-a search that may
fill our curiosities about who we really
are. This search for our histories
may, like Haley’s, take years. Even if
we never know which African tribe we
originated from, our parents, sibling,
grandparents, lovers, spouses, and
children, our families, are waiting to
be touched communicated with and
loved.
In doing so, may we become better
acquainted with our families, and
ourselves.