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Page 2, The Carolina Journal, Dec. 18, 1968
Editorial
Christmas — a Bittersweet
(A Guest Editorial by F. N. Stewart) fTl • 1
Where They Gonna Sleep? 1 IIHG OI tJlG YgRT
Considering that the fantasy of completed dorms does miraclize
by the beginning days of next fall’s semester, we wonder what the
students therein will do with their time other than spend it
academically. We suggest that it is a superable disguised contrivance
to make all of the dorm students excellent scholars or excellent
subjects for a looneybin study. Need we say that all books and no
booze or broads will not make a student a better scholar.
Where They Gonna Eat?
We may speculate that other than going to classes, when the
dorms are built the students will create their own form of
excitement as they come to class carrying their lunch bags since
there will be a small feeding problem until the additional cafeteria is
finished.
Where They Gonna Park?
In addition to the problem of feeding that many students, once
we have found a place for them to sleep, there will be a greater
problem of where to park a student’s car. The university is now a
commuter college andit will be for a long time even after the dorms
are totally finished. The ten dollars parking fee is ridiculous now and
will become more so when a student who commutes to school
cannot find a parking place anywhere on campus because those
students who live in the dorms will have their cars parked here too.
A large double standard is apparently going to arise between the
communter student and the resident student because of the parking
problem. The resident will, of course, complain about not being able
to park, but it seems that the student who has to drive to school has
a better argument for having that parking space. If resident students
are allowed to park their cars, it should be at a cost double or triple
the parking fee of commuter students. This would hopefully insure
that the crowded situation which resulted for a while (two or three
years) could be lessened by this amount of additional revenue, if it is
used to construct adequate parking space for the resident students.
A more ideal solution for this parking problem would be double or
triple decker parking units to conserve space and, more importantly,
to allow one to park within reasonable walking distance of the heart
of the University. If we continue to pave ground for parking, our
campus will soon look like the Coliseum’s parking lot. (During
holidays we could use it as a substitute airport for Charlotte.) The
double-decker parking lot would also provide protection against the
elements as students and faculty walked a block or block and a half
to the buildings in the quadrangle. We reject the idea of raising
parking fees for the commuter students. It seems somehow
analogous to taxing a necessity. People have surrendered too much
living space to these steel, mechanical necessities and they are taxed
quite adequately already. The state, federal, and local governments
have developed superb ways of taxing tin box transporters and the
university does not need to follow in their misguided wavs.
Where They Gonna Play?
If we get the students learning well enough, and having a place to
sleep, and a place to eat, and a place to park; then there^ only one
other problem. What will the student be doing when he is not
involved in one of the afore metioned activities; If we judge by what
is on campus now, we see several answers. First he may be going to
Charlotte to participate in some of her extra-curricular activities if
he has the money. Or, he may be bored silly.
Here lies the greatest problem that the dorm student will face.
What to do when classes are thru for the day or the week. If it has
been forgotten by the administration, students do not study all the
Ume. We suggest an immediate move for the creation of conveniences
and extra curricular activities on campus. First and foremost there
should be some on-campus machines from which a person may
obtain sandwiches, preferably hot sandwiches. When the cafeteria
closes in the afternoon, the only substanance of this campus is candy
bars, soft drinks, coffee, and milk provided that one can get into
the buildings to get them. We have seen these sandwich machines so
they do exist, and there is a need here for the machines. They should
be added this semester.
The first step to be taken is to add a ten-dollar line item to the
general fees of each student. If should be effective by next fall. It is
the first big step. The line item would be a Union programming fee
to be handled by the Director of Programming for the Union. The
money (somewhere between $20,000 to $30,000) would provide the
capital necessary to begin expanding activities on campus. A movie
theatre of sorts should be established at the university. It need not
be elaborate, but sufficient. It could be perhaps in one of the larger
lecture rooms in C-Building. Movies could be shown perhaps on
Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights. A nominal
admission fee (25 cents?) could be charged for the movies. A
continuing, rather than sporadic, coffee house could be established.
It has been suggested that when we are not using professional talent,
we use local talent from our own university and from surrounding
colleges. Again, the students would be charged a nominal admission.
These admission charges must be made so that a small part of the
cost would be offset. The general fee must be charged of all students
to provide the opportunity to have these activities. And the
admission fee should be charged for the exercise of the option to see
them. The coffee house could perhaps be held where previous coffee
houses have been held.
The Union will have to expand its houn from 7:00 A.M. to 11 ;00
P.M. The Union will have to be open, also, on Saturdays with these
same hours. It should be open most of Sunday afternoon, perhaps
from 12:00 to 10:00 P.M. The Bookstore will have to open all day
Saturday and Sunday afternoon. The gameroom will have to stay
open till 10:00 P.M. The cafeteria should have its grill open
everynight till 10:30. The craftshop should also have night hours.
There should be areas of the Union where a T.V. is kept
permanently to allow for casual viewing.
Christmas is tor me a
bittersweet time of the year. And
from the clash, the gargantuan
collision of these two essences,
the bitter and the sweet, emerges
the spirit of Chriatmas in the US.A
in 1968. Nominalism runs wild;
confusion reigns supreme. Wlien
Christmas nears coming to my
ears are not the sounds of
chestnuts roasting on open fires
but the maddening cacophony of
utter and total confusion, the
agonizing groans of a
schizophrenic holiday unable to
grasp identity. As spokesman for
December 25 we look to the
mighty bell to ring its message of
truth and hope to a beleaguered
world. Would it not be more
appropriate to select variously
trained, dedicated, talented, and
disciplined individuals, each
singing his own favorite ditty
without any direction whatsoever,
as our yuletide choir?
Christmas is for me a
bittersweet time of the year. With
nauseating efficiency we here in
this country are crucifying the
celebration of Christ’s birth with
the trinkets, the glossy ornaments,
the polished surface of modern
technology. Ascending from our
substrata of values is a clarion call
to purchase, to wrap, to display,
to use, and to discard SOON an
unbelievable array of trivia - a call
which I have obediently answered,
answer, and probably will
continue to answer. Of what is
Christmas made? A menagerie of
dolls capable of duplicating
almost any biological function;
plastic fashioned by the machine
into weapons authentic to the
bayonet; perfumed hormone
cream guaranteed to keep mama
an eternal 27; padded elbow rests
allowing daddy to get closer in
comfort to the TV on Sunday
afternoons; aluminum Christmas
trees shimmering with the warmth
of neon lights placed in
sub-development windows; the
budding of bulbs from gutter to
front porch to back porch to side
porch working together to
produce the aura and mystique of
Douglas Municipal Airport. All of
these and more perched atop a
Bankamericard, of that Christmas
is made.
Christmas is for me a
bittersweet time of the year. How
reassuring that this man whose
birth we now celebrate believed
fervently in man’s capacity for
goodness, and especially pertinent
for us today, in his ability to do
the unprecedented. How
courageous Jesus’ life. How
consistent His example. How
penetrating His message.
Christmas is for me a
bittersweet time of the year.
Without children the joy of
Christmas would not be. That
unspoiled and uninhibited
enthusiasm with which the young
receive this holidav underscores
their eviable ability, once lost
never to be reacquired, to touch
By Dan L. Morrill
life directly, not to subdivivide its
vital energy into a plethora of
interpretative pigeonholes, not to
hide its joys and pains behind a
multifaceted gridwork.
Christmas is for me a
bittersweet time of the year. It is
a time of remembering, a signpost
around which the past gather. My
mother, my father, my childhood,
my home. It is a time of
appreciating people here and now,
a signpost around which parties
occur, conversations are held. My
wile, my daughter, my friends.
Christmas is for me a bittersweet
time of the year.
Carmichael Advocates
Black Pride
By Walt Sherrill
1:00 when
It started about
Carmichael’s bodyguards wouldn’t
let anyone (except Blacks) into
the Parquet Room. “You can
come in at fifteen til two,” they’d
say in response to questions from
students-and then they’d close
the doors. A few outside the
doors became more than a little
upset, but Stewart Auten did a
commendable job of keeping
tempers cool.
Sherry Drake of the Journal,
Eileen Auerbach (disguised as a
mild-mannered reporter), and 1
finally managed to get inside after
Alice Folger interceded on our
behalf with one of the
bodyguards.
The first ten rows of chairs
were filled with Blacks; most of
them seemed to be college
students, and nearly all of them
were well-dressed and civil.
Toward the rear, a few
prosperous-looking Black adults
sat apart, interrupting their
discussion periodically to .returni
greetings from students. Everyone
in the Parquet Room seemed in
good humor, which was
understandable: they were
running the show.
One television reporter seemed
to have an jn ordinateamount of
influence among members of the
Black Panther Party-the same
reporter who had played such a
large part in a little squabble here
on campus the day after the
“Bitch-In”.
Dr. Cone came in the door to
protest, I was told later, that
UNC-C students were being
denied entrance to the Parquet
Room while Smith students were
not. At the time, however, it
looked as thougli she were being
denied entrance as well.
A few minutes later. Dean
MacKay went to the microphone
and asked all but the first four
rows of Blacks to leave their seats
and exit the Parquet Room. (The
first four rows were considered
part of the Black security force,
and would’ve been allowed to
stay.) It was a campus, policy, he
said, that seats were given to
visitors only after all students had
been seated; if they did not
comply, he would be forced to
cancel the speech. Nobody
moved. The bodyguard I was
talking to said quite simply, “they
As the talk progressed and
became more ideological, I felt
that I was back in Dr. Jamgotch’s
class in Soviet Government,
relearning the tenets of
Marxist-Leninist theory. Yet
Carmichael was an impressive
speaker.
(Stokely wasn’t wearing a belt:
apparently the life of an agitator
leaves one little time to attend to
the personal things.)
“As Che Guevara said, ‘either
you win or you die—you can’t
(Continued on Page 6)
‘X-masP
never move.
About 1:50 the doors opened
and students flooded in. A long,
smoke-filled thirty minutes
ensued as the audience waited for
Carmichael to make his
appearance.
Abruptly, the rear door of the
Parquet Room opened and the
first ten rows erupted into cheers
and raised fists: Stokely
Carmichael, Prime Minister of the
Black Panther Party had arrived.
Chuck Howard, the Journal
Photographer, was busy taking
pictures of Stokely, the crowd,
and of anything that moved. He
even got a picture of UNC-C’^
own Carmichael, Mike, a five-year
man if ever there was one.
Wlien you explore the media
coverage of Carmichael’s speeches,
you find much about his allusions
to Violence, but little else. Yet
before the talk devolved into
polemics last week, Carmichael
gave an eleoquent description of
the negro-self-image.
Negroes are a very negative
people, and they hate themselves.
If they are ever to become people,
they must first learn to love
themselves. Stokely Carmichael
said that, not 1. And that seems to
be as much a part of what he is
trying to say as Violence.
“I am for Revolutionary
violence...and by violence, 1 mean
hurting people!” Violence, he
said, has been institutionalized in
America as a legitimate tool to
keep the Black man down; if
Blackmen are ever going to
become people they will in turn
have to make violence legitimate.
“Did you ever think of Poverty
as Violent, or of a black baby
going to bed hungry as
Violence?...”