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by F.N. Stewartp
EUROPE PART 11
travel south from Mannheim in the middle of West
leaden'"*'* Geniiany, the countryside begins to roll and the air becomes cooler,
generl !|t was the third week of March, and I had intentions of having my
IS wol**^nty-first birthday in the city of Rome. This was the town which I
of llwanted to see more than any other in Europe. The eternal golden
[o. 1 jy gjy of Rome had hung in my mind since I had first discovered that I
d disJwas coming to Europe.
and ^ Gennany was beginning to dress formally for spring. The
outh’tchocolate brown earth was exposed to the warm spring sun, and
one ofllittle twigs of new green grain were looking at the world for the first
ik Oik]time-
they J Ben, a friend, and I had decided to camp along the way. The
graeiJ entire back seat of my VW was crammed with goods to eat, sleeping
ily wa^bags cooking gear and the rest of the useful, needless junk. We had
midabi, I started at daybreak and planned to spend the first night somewhere
as hei I on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea.
olloweii ^ We crossed the border of Switzerland and drove into the alps. We
ctivisti picked up two girls, one from Frankfurt, the other from Denmark,
ithesJ^o were hitchhiking to Milano. We lost forty-five minutes taking
red-nd everything out of the backseat and tying it onto the roof of the car.
dping ■; We lost more time stopping to pick up the stuff which was bown off
vTs?ba|**'^^°° The Swiss and the Alps
t Upon.
igardlessl The Swiss speak a Germanic language which I could not
Tut ijunderstand, but the girl from Frankfurt also had trouble with it. The
to bd Swiss houses are usually built with one masonry wall having no
hdel^snndows. On many there were painted colorful scenes depicting
given rvarious phases of living. Some were just pictures of birds, deer, or
mightother animals. All were very pretty,
ntly, oij The grandeur which is the alps is something that defies
3t. buinj description. The sweep of the magnitude of these structures is a
hat we inflowing symphony of architectural design in vastness. I was, in short,
we woiU awestruck. The roads thru these hUls must have been made by
ig fopvii Hannibal, and the elephants did a lot of damage. The damage has
thoughnnever been repaired. Driving past another VW on these narrow roads
isions, biis an uncomfortable feeling. Driving past a truck is a nerve-shattering
- experience. A truck passing a truck is something that only the most
sadistic type of person wants to watch. Top speed on these roads for
articilsj fool is about thirty miles an hour. For anyone sane it is
'^Pitati*considerably less.
s whenl| ^lell into the Alps there were often two or three feet of snow on
entPouBjidier side of the road. The sun was bright and the temperature was
’ yoi ft around sixty degrees. I decided to drive over the St. Gotthard Pass
en youflbecause 1 thought it was passable. As I rounded the last curve out of
|ot pow (lie last little town before getting to the pass, I ran into a six-foot
lo-T spdsnow bank. The pass was not clear. I then backtracked five miles
us all, (flown the mountain to put the car on a train. It cost abouve five
and ofliifloiiars in Swiss fanes to put the car on a flatcar and ride in it thru
chani two tunnels to a town on the other side of the pass,
se, thnilii
patieii!| Into Italy
link 'S stopped at Lucerne by the lake. Needless to say the water was
jointma cold. We had lunch in a cafe overlooking the lake. Swiss
L .t beer is a robust as German beer, but the taste is milder. Several hours
d J "'u Tad made it to Lake Como, which is just inside Italy. The
“ border guards were troublesome. They wanted to see everything that
show ^ ^ carrying. We had two five-gallon cans—one carrying water;
nfipthe other, gasoline, which is taxable. The guard did not speak
fesv (1J fi'glish or German or French, he spoke Italian and Spanish. So he
told the Danish girl, who spoke fluent French, to tell a Frenchman
d of iS having his car checked and who spoke Spanish, to tell the
, 1 j j guard that we had water in both cans. The guard told the Frenchman
“ or crea. guard didn’t believe me. So we let
] nr.iii *Tck his finger into the water can. That satisfied him, stupid
' P"‘>ard.
S to S3VI
her kiw ^ Lake Como area, you begin to wind down the
ljef,.i,^P^ and onto the plains of Italy. The panoramic view as you
I life iifl spectacular. We got to Milano (which the Italians call
I Mdan) late in the afternoon. The girls decided to go to Genoa with
memlid climbed back into the mountains the rain started to fall,
id face '* ua we drove onto the beach outside of Genoa
and No.) f"* pTched our camp for the night. We cooked some hotdogs and
e ssg®*rl talked into the late hours as young people
tge SI' The Mediterranean Sea in the early morning hours is a light
v.v.;.;.i}|®®®rald green. The girls cooked breakfast American style, eggs,
•XvXCvjf bacoii, grits, toast, and beer. We burned the paper plates, washed the
I pans in the sea, smothered the fire, and packed. The girls wanted to
I stay in town a day or two, so we said so long and headed south
nith I toward Pisa.
ivart ;| The famed leaning tower of Pisa is a scary thing. Ben and I sat
rake the street from it drinking seventy-five cents a gallon Italian
vatd ||®ue. The tower looks as if it is going to fall, going to fall at any
;|minute.
itlin
The Glory That Was Rome
The road south from Pisa to Rome
right by the sea.
I ^metimes there is a drop of about a hundred feet, sometimes -
I drop of ten. The Italian countryside was brown, sandy and gave the
I ap^arance of being dirty. I was disappointed in it.
I The greatest disappointment of all was Rome itself. It is the
(continued on Page 8)
The Carolina Journal, October 9, 1968 Page 7
Action Reaction
(continued from Page 6)
There was a suggestion from the floor, phrased in the form of a question, that the
membership elect a reporter to the newspaper staff to keep the paper caught up on what
ACTION was doing. I chuckled, wondering if the suggestion was meant to he a joke. As
editor, I feel that I have a p-r-e-t-t-y good idea of how 1 select my staff, and 1 don’t think
that I try to enlist reporters to write about organization of which they are members. The
objectivity often suffers. In this case, I felt that it would.
However, just as I was prepared to make a statement to this effect, Mr. Chavis spoke-
“1 don’t think that we should get hung-up on whether or not we look good in the press or
not, ‘cause ...you know... “Yes, Mr. Chavis, we do know. And it is my intention to see
that everybody knows! One person called for a poll to see how many in attendance were
freshmen, old members, etc. The Results are shown above. Twenty-one of the forty-seven
people present had not been allowed to vote.
After another squabble about procedure, it was suggested that Mr. Chavis appoint Jerry
(his last name was never mentioned) to serve as parliamentarian. Jerry turned down the
office because he said that he did not meet the academic requirments, that is, he did not
carry a 2.0 grade point average. After a spirited debate, it was decided that there was
some sort of rule which disallowed a person with less than a 2.0 from holding an office in
the University. (It then occurred to me that Mr. Chavis had been forced to resign his
office as chairman of the University Union for the reason of deficient “q.p.’s”.)
A member of the UNC-C basketball team was awarded the floor, and he spoke of
student apathy in athletics. Mr. Chavis affirmed that the members of ACTION would do
anything in their power to alleviate this situation.
A member pointed out from the floor that ACTION was just a group of intereste;
students, and not a left-wing organization. He sounded as if he thought that the title of
“left-wing” was a disgraceful one.
The next order of business was the discussion of speakers for the coining year. Mr.
Chavis stated that Howard Fuller was ready to come at any time, free of charge, if
ACTION was willing to sponser him. There were whispers of approval from what had not
become Mr. Chavis’ audience. Some were impressed. He also affirmed that “Eldrige
Cleaver was supposed to be in the area soon, but they put him back in the ‘pokey.” Seven
individuals laughed. I didn’t think it to be funny.
Mr. Wayne Eason, who also serves the school in the capacity of Attorney General, then
called for a treasurer’s report. Mr. Chavis, who had been treasurer las year, stated tliat the
treasury was depleted, perhaps even in the red, due to a debt to the Union cafeteria. He
added that ACTION was an organization with the reputation of doing a remarkable job of
operating without money. Mr. Chavis was asked if this is where the fifty-cent-membersliip
fee goes. He replied that the dues usually go for publicity supplies.
For more information about the remaining business of the meeting, see the related
article on page 2 . I feel that one last comment on the meeting proper is interesting. As
the meeting was closed by mr. Chavis’, “1 declare this meeting adjourned.”, a voice from
the back of the room chimed in, “I declare this meeting a farce.” 1 didn’t say it. 1 wish 1
had. With the close of the meeting, the students left the room or lingered, talkingi quiet
voices. A dozen-and-a-half very disillusioned people left that room last Wednesday. They
had, blatantly and under no guise whatsoever, been the victims of one of the most
obvious cases of discrimination ever witnessed on this campus. It was quite obvious tliat,
if the chairman of the meeting expects to get some opposition from some faction of the
membership, he can exclude them from the voting by declaring an arbitrary edict at his
whim. This is an example of the workings of a democratic society? 1 hold that is is not. It
is a clear-cut example of an aristocratic dictatorship in ACTION.
Their Constitution—Revisited
In Article I Section 1 of the ACTION Constitution, the following statement can be
found; “Membership is open: To any student full or parttime, daytime or evening
attending UNC-C.” This statement does not admit old members and freshmen (and
transfers) while excluding all others. Article II outlines the procedure for electing a
president. “A president shall be selected among the cabinet and this position shall be
rotated on a monthly basis.” The president was elected last Wedne.sday from the
“in-group”. This is another blatant violation of the constitution that they, themselves,
wrote. In Article III the voting procedures are described. “A member who owes dues is
not allowed any vote. Otherwise there shall be (that’s what is says!!) no other restriction
on his participation in the organization.” 1 don’t remember anyone saying that I OWliD
dues (and if it had been said, I would know, because I took exhaustive notes). Ikit, if 1
owed dues, then so did those freshmen. 1 have outlined three obvious violations of their
OWN constitution.
Plagiarism!
If this is not sufficient evidence to convict ACTION of being something other than
what it seems, then there are a few more black marks on the ACTION ledgers that should
rest the case. Not only has ACTION failed to pay their $25 bill to the 1967-1968 Rogues
‘N Rascals (remember, page 73, which reads- “Students for ACTION The Student Group
That Doesn’t Rely On Pictures), but they also took the liberty of xeroxing their page to
use as signs advertising their meeting. If one is interested enough to check the final page
of the annual, where the copyright regulations are stated, he will discover the following
statement: “No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior written
permission of the author.” That’s a law. I rest my case.
It appears that ACTION not only does not rely on pictures, but they don’t rely on
equality, legality, or their own constitution.
Why—Victor Lopez
Why do I go to so much trouble to point out this problem that is creeping over our
campus like a much unwanted shadow? It is the result of what a much respected friend of
mine once said to me. About two weeks before his tragic death, Victor Lopez and 1 had a
long telephone conversation on the subject of crime and injustice in America He had iust
made a statement designating those who wrote to a public audience, and wrote the truth
as the last hope of salvation to the people. He then said, and these are his exact words’
You must tell them. Teach them to think. Do not aTlow them to accept blindly or to
no 2 terrible but deserved
end. DO NOT LET HIS WORDS FALL ON DEAF EARS! 1 have told you. It now
remains within the power of the individual to act.