Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / Feb. 25, 1983, edition 1 / Page 5
Part of The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Editorials "Hair of the Dog" Offers Lesson Beverly Rogers Special Contributor The summer following my freshman year in college brought me a work experience that I will not soon forget. I was just emerg ing into adulthood after a lengthy, happy childhood and a brief, awkward adolescence. I was sheltered and a bit arrogant, sure that someone would hire me for a well paying summer job. No one did. As the weeks of summer wore on, I finally took the only job offered to me. I became a dog census taker. I endured countless jokes about "going to the dogs." That is ex actly what I did. Each morning I joined a partner to work assigned neighborhoods, knocking on doors to ask questions about dog ownership. My partner was a chubby cellist. He was a childhood friend who had fre quently needed my protection from bullies. Now he was suppos ed to be the masculine presence that would protect me from danger in the down-and-out areas to which we were assigned. Letters to the Editor "Welcome" to the South Dear Editor, My grandmother's reply to my announcement that I would be at tending school in the South was that I should let no one know that I was a Catholic. This reaction puzzled me; at first I took it as joke and laughed. "Right Grandmom, if I see any men in white sheets I'll come home." "Janice, just watch you tongue and behave." I haven't given much thought to telling people I'm a Catholic and I haven't been very cautious. I hold Freeze cont'd, from page 4 today on the US and destroy all of our ICBM's, bombers, and submarines in port, we would still have 2400 nuclear warheads at sea, completely pro tected from attack. With those missies we could destroy several times over the 300 biggest Russian cities in which are contained Vfe of their population and % of their industry effectively shoving the Rus sians back into the Stone Age. If that is not enough, consider this: the use of less than 1% of the super powers' nuclear arsenals would blast both nations beyond recovery as industrial societies. When we possess that kind of overkill capacity, what is the point of building more bombs? The claim that a freeze would be unverifiable is simply an untruth. We do not have to "trust" the Russians, for we have adequate physical means of verification. It would be dangerous for us to place our fate in their hands, just as it would be for them blindly to trust us, for the dirty game of power politics is played the same cynical way in both Washington and Moscow. Reagan's START pro posal calls for a Vb reduction of numbers of certain warheads, with no limit on technology or produc tion. The freeze calls for a general ban on the pro duction, testing, and deployment of all warheads and delivery systems. START would be much harder to verify than a total freeze, for under START both nations could update existing systems and continue to expand submarine and bomber forces. With our satellites, whose vision so accurate that they can read license plates in Moscow, we can monitor closely all activity at Russian nuclear facilities. Any clandestinely-produced would be so few in number and so unusable in form that the risk of being caught violating the treaty would far outweigh their military benefit. One thing was soon apparent. Nobody welcomed nosey col legians asking questions about their dogs. Owners rightly assumed that there was some connection between our questions and fines for unlicensed dogs. Owners identified with their dogs. Our questions about age, sex, and breed of dog were as much an affront as if we had questioned personal pedigree. We learned to ask the questions obli quely, to savor the replies. Pride spoke, "Well, she's almost a Col lie, but a little bit Spitz." Honest ly might be mixed with defen siveness, "Best damned mutt in this county." We were paid at he rate of ten cents per recorded dog. When owners told us they had "just one old hound," and we could see an entire pack in the backyard ken nel, it was tempting to list them all and collect the dimes. My partner and I had been taught to be honest. We scrupulously recorded only the number claim ed, but we made a note of "possibly more" in case the dog hands with my black boyfriend in public and kiss a black girlfriend when we meet. I haven't been suf ficiently worried. My mother did not want me to live with my friend this summer; her reasoning is not what you would hear from you mother in this situation. She was afraid that a Klansman or "some lunatic" would attack us. She warned me to lock all doors and to enter the apartment with discretion. She too was quite serious in her fears and would not allow me to brush them aside. All summer, as I lay in bed, the creaks of the house terrified me. If the US freeze movement is "red", then so are Pope John Paul 11, the Catholic Bishops, the American Friends Service Committee, and the ma jority of voter in 6 US states and in hundreds of U.S. cities. And let us not forget to consider the millions of other concrened citizens around the nation and the 202-plus House members of the House of Representatives who support the freeze. Even though government intelligence reports indicate there is no Communist manipulation of the move ment, freeze opponents continued to use witch-hunt tactics to try to stop the inevitable. The freeze movement is a grassroots reaction to blatant and lifethreatening government ir resposibility. The pressure, born of fear and of hope, is mounting; as Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "the people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it." Nuclear weapons are not the problem; rather they are only the worst and most recent symptom of man's ageless incapacity to deal peacefully with his fellows. The Soviet Union and the US feel threaten ed and are searching for security ; and as long as they feel denied in their quest they will be in cons tant conflict. Until we begin using pacific means of relation, our conflicts will take military form. The nuclear form will not produce harmony among na tions but it is a first step to assuring that we do not obliterate ourselves entirely. A freeze by itself will not save the world from doom. After a halt to the arms race must come a reversal to it, a reduction of existing nuclear stockpiles. But most importantly, with the coopera tion necessary to institute a freeze will come a new Soviet and American wilingness to talk rather to posture and to fight. Through his willingness we can begin emphasizing peaceful rather than violent means of international conflict resolution. officer wanted to check it out for himself. Honesty like that meant that it took alot of walking and door pounding to make a dollar. I did not earn much money that summer, but I did learn a number of things that have stayed with me. I learned to con quer my fear of the poor, of peo ple who had usually been some distance from me. I saw things that before had been only abstract "problems" in a sociology text - patterns of slum ownership in an industrial com munity, hunger, alcoholism, in adequate education, and racial injustice. I could no longer ignore these issues or the people I had once feared. For the next decade I searched for solutions to the ine qualities I saw. I found no easy So now finally these fears are coming to be a reality. A few weeks ago, Marcian was waken ed by a phone call and a threat, "Don't f-with Janice Lynch." A friend of Marcian's brother finds notes under her door: "Nigger lover." "Poor white trash nigger lover," "Poor, poor white trash." These two incidents may not frighten you. I am surprised to find my own reaction is one of anger. I am furious and not sure how to deal with this. Shall I stand on campus and curse this unknown person? Shall I call my grandmother and tell her that I'm coming home? Shall I chain solutions, but I continued to work in classrooms, work camps, civil rights activities, and politics, hoping for change. I learned to persevere - a Vic torian concept - but one that has helped me in other situations less pleasant than the dog census. Most of the work we do, whether we are students, parents, or faculty is unglamorous. It is the ability to find meaning behind the drudgery that carries us through to accomplishment and satisfac tion in our work. I learned not to judge people too quickly through my own view of the world. The first surprise that summer was the chubby cellist. I had looked down on him because of his social inade quacies, his inability to meet my teen aged view of manliness. I found he was kinder and funnier that any of the rest of my friends. In decaying neighborhoods, we discovered people who would welcome us, share a glass of iced tea on a hot day, and laugh with us at our ridiculous assignment. Children accompanied us on our the door and not go out alone? I am distressed by these in cidents. The very personal nature of them makes it inevitable that these threats come from a stu dent at Guilford. I cannot and do not try to guess who is responsi ble for these incidents. Perhaps is was only in jest: but no one is really laughing. Does it sound trivial to you? Imagine that you receive notes under your door: "Quaker lover' of "Honky lover." Imagine so meone calls your boyfriend and threatens him not to "f— with" you. Imagine passing strangers and friends on campus and wondering whether their thoughts are so malicious Does it seem absurd that I should worry about these two in cidents? Of course-and it is equally absurd to chain my door at night, to tremble at the thought of being alone in an apartment, to stay inside after dark. It is ab surd at my age to be afraid of the dark. Perhaps someone was only kid ding. But this racism is not a joke, nor can I make it one. I am angry and I am frightened but I am not going home. Jancie Lynch Who is Responsible for "David Nash?" Dear Editor, A writer's life is not an easy one, just ask anyone on the Guilfordian staff. As writers, we diligently search out the truth and the real story no matter to what depth we have to "sink" to produce a quality publication. We have to maintain an objective viewpoint no matter how repulsive we find the subject. Despite all this, it's not the world-shaking occurances but the little things that upset a writer the most. We sweat, toil and labor over an article only to have some jackass jump up and down claim ing that he wrote it. This really bugs a honest-to-goodness writer. We all feel these psuedo-writer rounds, friendly and eager to talk. We were even protected from the anger that our questions could generate. ("I'll take you next door to see Jim. He can be real mean if he's been drink ing.") It has continued to be my pleasure to find surprises, mostly pleasant, in the people I meet. All of this personal reminiscence is to urge you to look for chances to learn outside of the classroom during your col lege years. You will find the chance in foreign study, intern ships, volunteer work, and in unlikely jobs. Many Guilford students have told me that one of the most valuable parts of their college life has been an intern ship (see Jim Keith) or foreign study (see Bill Schmickle). Low ly jobs, on campus or off, can be more than dollars toward tuition if you use them to discover new things about yourself and the world around you. And if any of you should find that is lowlier than taking the dog census, I would like to be informed of your experiences. are grass stains on the cosmic fabric of life. The astute reader will have figured out by now that I'm tick ed off about something. I per sonally don't think ticked off con veys the true intensity of my righteous wrath. Homicidal rage is closer to the truth. If I were to see David Nash right now I'd strangle that pencil-necked geek. Where does he come off claim ing that he was the author of "Where's Your David Nash?" Some gall this kid has! Just because he steals the unicorn story from a starving, young aspiring writer, he, the diabolical David Nash, feels that he can steal my article, too. David, you're lower than a flea suffering from leprosy. I know you suffer from an unhappy childhood but that doesn't give you the right to steal other peo ple's articles. Your just going to have to stop living in this fantasy world of your and recognize that your writing will never approach the mental level of comic book readers, much less the caliber of my poetic prose. I want you and every student to know, Dave, that I don't intend to rest until this gross miscarriage of justice has been rectified. I'll sue you down to your skivvies. I want all the book and movie rights and I plan to get them one way or another. (Anyone who is a good sharpshooter - leave a note in Box *17621 - Good Pay.) Dave, you have one last chance and that's it. If you don't come across to my point of view, my next article will focus on the weird habits of the (soon to be) late David Nash. Dig? Signed Henry A. (Rick) Watson Alias Rodney Dangerfield Ed. First it was "Where's Your Unicorn?" then "Where's Your David Nash?" and nou> this. Maybe next is "Who is Responsible for Rick Watson?" Is there no end in sight? Letters cont'd, page 6 5 £B6l 9Z faeniqaj ueipiojuno
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 25, 1983, edition 1
5
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75