PAGE 2 — WEST CRAVEN HIGHLIGHTS — JULY 27. 1989
GAIL
WUrDS
Our Opinion
by; Call 1. Roberson i
“Nothing" is often a good thing to say. There’s nothing wrong with
having nothing to say, as long as you don't say it out loud. Some folks
are so long-winded that they forget what they're saying by the time
they Anally get around to it. I come from a long line of seasoned talk
ers. One of my uncles talks so fast it can be compared to a man read
ing Playboy magazine while his wife turns the pages.
One good thing about silence is that it can’t be repeated. I have
found that “opened by mistake* applies more often to mouth than it
does to mail. No one has yet invented a better trap than an open
mouth. Even a Ash would stay out of trouble if he kept his mouth
shut. What you don’t know won’t hurt you, but it can bore your
friends half to death if you keep repeating it.
There are those who talk a lot but say very little, and those who
talk a little and say very much. I don’t see too many people who don’t
At in one or the other of these categories.
A woman in Los Angeles was berating the grocery store man ab
out every thing from his prices to the fact that it was raining outside.
As she Anally left, he commented . . . “That woman’s got enough
mouth for two sets of teeth."
But in comparison, some parents were worried sick about their
little boy, age eight, who hadn't spoken a work since birth. One day
he looked up at breakfast and said, “Could I have a little more sugar
on my oatmeal?” The parents were dumfounded, and hysterically
cried, “You spoke! You said something! Tell us, why have you waited
all these years?" The little kid shrugged his shoulders and replied,
“Up till this, everything’s been okay."
We professional speakers have to keep our feet clean, for we never
know when we’ll put them in our mouth. We also have to watch the
deck. On concluding an exceeding long and dull presentation, one
speaker said, “And now, if anyone has a question. I’ll be glad to try to
answer it.” A member of the audience stood up and asked, “Is it still
1989r
Speaking in public is hard enough, but keeping it interesting is
the real challenge. The master of ceremonies at a banquet table awa
kened a guest at his right by tapping his bald head with the gavel
while the last speaker was holding forth before a large and ex
hausted audience. “Hit me again," the aroused snoozer implored. “I
can still hear him."
An accomplished public speaker knows the rules and uses them;
Stand up so people can see you. Speak up so people can hear you.
And shut up so people will like you.
Some people are easily entertained. All you have to do is sit down
and listen to them. We ail know a few. They’re people of words and
not of deeds. Like a garden full of weeds.
Yes, nothing is opened by irfistake as much as the mouth. There’s
no need to say all that you know, but always know what you say. But
even then, you can bet your mouth mints that after all is said and
done. . .somebody’s probably still talking. The tongue weighs prac
tically nothing. Yet, it’s surprisinghow few people are able to hold it.
So, let’s save face, and keep the lower part of it shut
Southern
Seen
By LARRY MCGEIIEB
We must confess to mixed feel
ings about the mixed-up affairs in
China.
All my sympathies are with the
young protesters, and I share with
Congress and most Americans deep
feelings of revulsion at the crack
down on them and the executions
and prosecutions that have
followed.
Yet, those who were around be
tween 1968 and 1970 are haunted
by memories of similar student re
volts in our own countiy, of police
and protesters clashing at the 1968
Democratic Convention in Chicago,
and of deaths at official hands at
Jackson State and Kent State in
1970. We recall only too well the
mood of the times, the public call for
suppression of the young and for the
dismissal of those administrators
who tolerated their disruptiveness.
The impulse of *get things back to
normal* was overwhelming. We
have seen even felt some revival of
this in the recent flop over the Su
preme Court decision on the buring
of the flag.
If a return to normalcy was so ur
gent in our own country in 1970, in a
nation where freedoms of speech
and expression were long-engrained
habits and rights, it is likely that
such an impulse would be even
stronger in China in 1989, in a na
tion unaccustomed to assembly and
protest.
The troubling aspect of the China
protests is that it raises a very
thorny question of *why were the
protests of American students
wrong but those of Chinese students
right?* Almost as troubling is to
hear American leaders who at
tacked American student protests
calling for economic and military in
tervention on behalf of Chinese
protesters.
It is a peculiar paradox.
Perhaps because it is such a para
dox, President Bush has been mov
ing cautiously and carefully—too
much so, to many people's way of
thinking.
Bush knows that China is not go
ing to go away. He knows that this
emerging nation represents a large
percentage of the world population
and a hunk of the world’s power. He
knows that China has always acted
self-sufficiently end that when the
current storms pass, China will still
be there and will still need to be
dealt with.
President Bush is personally as
pained and os indignant as the rest
of us about what is happening in
China. But there is a difference be
tween acting presonally and acting
presidentially. His present dilemma
is in finding the best way to act
presidentially.
He has registered with the Chin
ese government his own protest on
behalfof the Chinese protesters. He
has seen to it that they know that
most Americans share his feelings.
He has not been able, however, to
show the Chinese government how
to retreat from its strong-arm rep
ressions without losing face.
And to the Chinese, losing face*
isa matter of great importance. Alot
of alumni thought President King-
man Brewster of Yale, Bush's alma
mater, lost face* for treating pro
testers at Yale too gingerly. Who
was right? What were the other ac
tion options that could have been
taken?
Those are the relevant questions.
What are the options? What are the
likely consequences of the options?
How can two warring sides that
both want economic progress come
together instead of flying apart?
Bush and our nation are in a di
lemma which is the classical para
dox of progress. Status quoism is al
ways the way of governments, but
progress is always the impulse for
protest. No resolution of a revolu
tion is ever completely satisfying to
anyone, and no perfect mechanism
for reaching a resolution has ever
been invented. The use of mass pro
test and the counter-use of force to
suppress it is an admission that
talk, thought, and transactions are
skills we practice poorly and too
inflrequently.
Protests come suddenly and in
masses, and suppressions follow as
inevitably os knee-jerk reactions to
walking into a coffee table in the
dark. Perhaps accommodation,
cooperation, and reconciliation are
already impossible by the time the
people occupy the public square.
Perhaps if there were many smaller
forums where people could speak
out and governments could hear,
both protests and repressions would
become unnecessary.
But meanwhile, as we await such
a millennium of rationality, we all
And it hard to stay cool about cold
heartedness, don't we? We pour out
indignation instead of solutions
only because other options ore not
obvious to us. It is a painful and per
plexing paradox.
Quit smoking.
Little Would Be Realized
By Tax On Movie Tickets
We are rather surprised that one of the plans under consideration
in the North Carolina Legislature is a tax on movie tickets.
As we read the proposal, it states that a three percent tax would
be collected on all theater tickets with the estimated sum coming to
the state being $1.7 million per year. With the budgetary problems
facing the legislature right now, the Agure is extremely small, but
the blow to the theaters might be heavier than most people realize.
We know that today we have far fewer theaters in our slate than
were in operation 50 years ago. The onslaught of television has hit
the movie business hard, and hundreds of theaters have been forced
to close their doors.
In 1950 neighboring Beaufort County had five movie theaters op
erating. Today we have one building with three movies. The facts
tell us the story of what has happened. When people can sit at home
and over television watch a good movie or a ball game or a quiz show,
then thousands do that rather than spend money at a theater.
We cannot at this writing know just how the theater owners will
react to such a proposed ticket tax, but we are of the opinion that
over the state theater owners are having it difllcult enough without
any special tax being applied to the tickets. Of course, prices range,
but a theater ticket today will cost anywhere from one dollar to Ave
dollars for a movie. For a play with live talent, the cost might range
from $10 to $20.
The proposed three percent tax would be paid by the customer and
not by the theater. We realize that fact. But eveiy little extra charge
might hurt more than most of us know. Certainly, theater operators
know, and they are expected to make a Aght before the legislature.
The people of North Carolina need to realize that the legislature is
groping with every passible straw, looking up every possible avenue
for additional money and finding strenuous opposition to just about
every approach. At the same time the pressure is heavy and con
tinues to And additional monies in order to give teachers and state
employees a six percent pay raise. We expect the body will And the
money somewhere. But Anding it from theater goers to the tune of
only $1.7 million per year hardly makes it a worthwhile source.
At this point, it is only a proposal. It is in the legislative budgethat
along with many other proposals. The attitude of the citizenry so of
ten can be summed up aptly by saying “tax the other fellow, but
leave me alone.”
Finding new or additional tax sources is no easy task. Legislators
do not make friends by taxing special interests or using item taxa
tion or hitting any one group’s pocketbook. Some might be happy
with the use of the money received, but on the other side of the coin,
from whence it came might leave some unhappy North Carolinians.
No Other Way
As much as it pains us, we must agree that in just about every en
deavor today, costs run wild ahead of revenues. And it does pain and
concern all of us who have payrolls to meet and business needs to
face.
We have just learned that Pitt County Memorial Hospital, the fa
cility used by East Carolina Medical School, is increasing its room
rates by 19 percent and its hospital care prices by 17.2 percent. In
practical terms, the normal room heretofore costing $210 per day
will go to $230 per day as of October 1. We are concerned with higher
prices there, but we see no other way.
This hospital and medical school represent big business for our
part of the country. And the hospital, just as all North Carolina hos
pitals, faces the fact that many patients do not pay or pay very little.
So it is pointed out that when one leaves the hospital in Greenville,
26 cents out of every dollar in the bill is there to pay for somebody
else who does not pay.
That's the way it is. And we have no other choice.
Double Talk Does Not Help
The Need For Prison Space
People all over North Carolina have long realized the need for
more prison space. They are tired of seeing criminals be sent up for
Ave years and get back home in Ave months.
Now a recent meeting of the Southern Legislative Conference,
held in Baltimore, attended by several North Carolina legislators,
may have been partly a social experience paid for by the taxpayers
and partly a discussion lime. But even in discussing problems now
apparent in Southern states, when we read double-talk, we must
confess that something sounds very strange.
An Associated Press story says “new prisons All up as quickly as
they are Anished and aren't the answer to prison overcrowding, but
that does not mean states can stop building them. Southern legisla
tors have been advised.”
Now if that above paragraph is not one great piece of wisdom, we
just do not know wisdom when we see it. Why do we build prisons?
We build new prisons because the present facility capacity is in
adequate to take care of the number of criminals assigned. So.wq
must provide more space. If the general public would only stop to
take a good look, then our citizenry would realize so very well ^at
the courts are trying to mete out justice, but because of limited
prison space, the parole board is thwarting pure justice by issuing
paroles long before the inmates ought to get them. We must keep the
prison population down, and the only way we can do it is to parole too
many too quickly.
So the legislators are advised that building new prisons and ad
ding more cells cannot be the answer. If providing adequate prison
space to house the criminals of North Carolina who have been tried
before a jury and found guilty, then sentenced by a qualiAed judge to
prison is not the solution, then someone ought to stand up and tell
the Southern legislators just where they can And that much sought
after solution.
We all must agree that other factors are involved in this challenge
of meting out justice. But providing adequate prison space is at or
near the lop of every list, we must believe. If this be untrue, then
why is the federal government pushing North Carolina so hard to
provide additional prison cells?
Common sense tells us that we cannot build prisons overnight.
The North Carolina Legislature this year has appropriated $80 mil
lion for prison construction. So we ought to get some additional
space, but $80 million hardly will All the overall needs.
In North Carolina we seem to have a prison cap of 18,000 prison
ers. When the prison population passes 98 percent of that 18,000 for
as much as 15 days, then what might be termed “emergency” paroles
are given. That fellow who robbed a store or who snatched a pocket-
book from a woman or who shot someone can be seen back home in
weeks.
Justice takes a back seat. Prison space is in control. Let North
Carolina quit dribbling the ball and build adequate prison space.
Unusual Order
We have never before heard of an order from a court that a dog be
brought into the courtroom in order that purer justice might be
found.
In Durham County a mixed breed dog was a Ane pet. She strayed
away and the owner tried valiantly to And'her with no success.
Another family found her and adopted her. Both owners apparently
had great affection for the dog. Now the court plans to exercise a
Solomon-like gesture and see just which family the dog wants to be
with most.
As we read the story, we see that lawyers are having a Aeld day
with such an unusual order. The fact that both families want this
dog very much poses a difAcult problem. But we doubt that pure jus
tice can be found by bringing a doginto court to see just which family
she chooses.
We doubt very much that this is the way to settle this lawsuit.
Women’s Group Hears
Devotion About Prayer
pie also need the prayers of their
loved ones. She also said people
need to sing praises to God, includ
ing praises of joy and than)^iv}|ig^
Ihe group mode plans for a mis
sion supper at 6 p.m. before prayer
meeting at 7:30 p.m.
The Women's Ministries of Van-
ceboro Pentecostal Holiness Church
met last Tuesday night. The meet
ing was celled to order by President
Jeanette Boyd.
Lois Spear gave the devotion. The
topic was prayer end praise and she
referred to Acts 16:25 for the Scrip
tural reference. She pointed out the
prayer is a beginning situation, a
link between mankind and God. She
said when people quit praying, the
link is broken between mankind
and God.
Mrs. Spear said people need to
continue praying because prayers is
able to change things. She said peo-
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