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Editor's Notebook f p &?2f JVar o Editorial Freedom All unsized editorials ere the opinion or cc!jrr.ns represent the c-;r.ion$ cf others. ::::o tt Wamock, Editor the editor. Letters and Frkfav. June 7, 1974 O odHnncgiiinoini V 4 - - f ,4 n 11 LX Cj Enured Looking around at the present situation here at UNC, one hs got to wonder about the future of higher education in the United States and the world. We look at the recent graduates of the University and we see that they are getting really great jobs with such major corporations as Hardees and Holiday Inns- of America. For a short while in the late I950s and early I960's the college diploma was an easy path to a suburban S45,000 house, a white collar job, two kids and a dog; with the coming of the 1970's the college diploma has proved its true worth as a great source of kindling for a nice fire at home. Actually that's a little caustic, but the college diploma- has definitely fallen somewhat in terms of a job locator. In addition to this, the cost of education has been steadily rising over the past years as more and more of the baby boom population tried to pry its way into the ivory tower of education, forcing administration officials to expand and extend the limits of enrollment. Universities and colleges, especially state institutions, were packed with students who were seeking job security, many of those students succeeding in their goals. Unfortunately for the students presently enrolled in college, all things must pass, the baby boom included, and with the baby boom passed the overwhelming need for highly educated and skilled graduates of colleges. The college diploma still is invaluable in finding a better job than the average high school graduate would find, but the better jobs nowadays are usually somewhere in the range of cafe cook or security guard at football games. It has been predicted that as the job market gets tighter and tighter, more and more students will be willing to drop college studies for a job opening, or just skip college altogether to go look for a job, knowing that the longer they wait, the worse the job market is going to get. And as more and more students abandon academics for monetary goals, the college campus will return to the status of a luxury item, only available to the people whose job future is not in question. emoerats to meet set party UNC students who are members of the Democratic party, and who did not find time last Tuesday to saunter on down to their polling place to vote, may still seek exoneration Tuesday, June 18, at their precihet headquarters (the place where they didn't show up to vote.) Despite the poor turn-out by students in the Chapel Hill area, most of the more progressive candidates won, but that still doesn't help all the precinct officials who found themselves snoring through Tuesday afternoon. policy Salvation time for non-voters isn't too far off though; the Democratic precinct meetings will give members a chance to help form the party's policy and activities heading into next November's election. (Sorry, Republicans, you've already had your precinct meetings for this year.) All the young Democrats who have grumbled and groaned for years about the attitude of the party now have the chance to do something helpful in steering the most powerful political party in the state of North Carolina. And now it's time to play You Bet Your Life, the great American game that people of all ages can play and enjoy. , Yes, the great American game. We see them everyday on television; before television, they were on radio. People get on the air and make fools of themselves for a few dollars. Say the Magic word and you win a hundred dollars. Ah yes, the American dream; you try to get something from nothing, create truth from illusion. The object of our game is to match three stars in a row, up and down, horizontally or diagonally. It's up to our contestants to tellus if the stars are giving them a correct answer or making up a bluff. Americans have long strived to excel, in sports, in war, in games. The American people seem to have this fatal fascination with skill and the ability to out-fox some foe, like life was all just one big game show. And so Mrs. Johnson, if you can answer this one last question, you will break the bank and win the $64,000 question, plus the trip to Los Angeles. The game has gotten more sophisticated over the years. In the beginning it was simple: you survived. Now it is more crucial to be better than everyone else at surviving. Any contestant that wins five matches and $2,000 will win a brand new Chevrolet Impala station wagon. Letter to the editor The days of simplicity are gone, probably never to return. Packaging specialists may try, Madison Avenue mogols try, Hollywood may try, everyone might try to convince themselves and the rest of the absent-minded world that we can all return to a more natural, a more simple state of affairs. . .all 3,786,405,238 of us. Now, will you be willing to trade that trip to Bermuda you've already won for what's behind door number one, or will you hold on to what you've got? I'll trade. Americans have traded away so much for so little; conscious of economic gain, individuality for social status and independence for security. People fled the major cities in droves during the last two decades, trying to get a little freedom and space out in the suburbs, only to find that everyone else had beaten them to it. Now there seems just about nowhere to go except down. Okay Jay. ..tell us what's behind door number one. A stuffed bald eagle; you've been zonked! People just have to learn that as long as they play someone else's game, they're going to lose. The deck is stacked against those who try to get into the game after it has started and the only way to win is to start a game of your own. Now in this game of Gambit the object is to get as close to 21 without going over. We play a two out of three match; each match is worth $200. As we grow older the game gets tougher and the stakes get higher. M istakes are costly in today's society as the games we play grow more intense and concentrate on the mental level of competition. Physical attributes mean less in the modem world than they did when survival was the single concern of people. And the players get slicker, right along with the games. Now the idea behind this game is to find the source oj the trouble, or at least to cover it up. The person holding the bag when time is up is the loser and we go on until only one person is left. The subject for today's game is the famous Viet Nam fiasco. Alright... let's play Place the Blame. Citizen: 1 didn't know anything about it until my son got drafted; I blame the military. Military: I was just following orders; I blame the President. President: I'm just following the wishes of the people. Citizen: WelLuh..I blame the Jews. (Horn) Announcer: I'm sorry; that's a scapegoat. Citizen: Then, I blame. .the..(Horn). Announcer: I'm sorry; the citizens lose. You bet. Tennis anvone? Mo un ta ins' b irth : event theories To the editor: Friday's edition of our herald of truth carried a column which made a reference to the origin of the Appalachain Mountains. The sooth seeking Baptists of Bob Jones University, the buckle of the Bible belt, have discovered from their theoretical calculations that Appalachia was invented in the year 4,004 B.C. Now, if you want to believe that, go right ahead; but the Cherokee have a much better explanation. In their stories, the earth was once covered by a great ocean and all the creatures lived in the sky. When the air became too crowded, the Great Spirit sent down a water beetle to find some land. Since there was no land to be found, the bettle had to dive to the bottom of the ocean and relocate the mud for a few continents. In order to dry the mud for the animals, the Great Spirit sent the Great Buzzard, grandfather of all buzzards, to create a breeze with the flapping of his wtngs. When he flew over the Cherokee country, he grew , tired and dipped so close to the mud as to strike it with his wings forming those great ridges, nountains, and valleys. Such is the Cherokee idea which I find just as easy to believe as that of the Baptists. The geologists give still another design for the Appalachian construction, but what does the origin of these mountains matter? What should concern us is the rate at which they are being destroyed! Linville Gorge is becoming a dump. 1 lost count of the cans and bottles along the way up Standing Indian Mountain, and cut my toe on a pull tab near the Appalachian Trail. My lungs were coated with dust from the rubble of a mountain the State Highway Commission had decreed unnecessary. I guess this is to be expected though, for what else could come from a race of people who would drive the peaceful Cherokee Nation from its mountain home? Jim Penny 108 Aycock The summer Tar Heel not only welcomes, but urges the expression cf all points of view on the editorial p age through the letters to the editor. Although the newspaper reserves the right to edit all letters for libelous statements and good taste, we urge; you to : write usv whatever our problem, point of view or comment. Letters should be limited to 3C3 words and must include the name, address and phone number cf the writer. We will not print a letter without knowing the writer's name. Type letters on a 60 space line. Submit them to the Tar Heel office .in the Student Union. H "HUJnrvED TRRjSs OF cpsrss TRFfT nneRns i R. Michael Leonard Government restricted! to tine FficUn In the state of North Carolina every citizen has the right to become a member of the state legislature, but in reality this right exists for only a privileged few, those few who are fortunate enough to have high paying investments and properties and do not need to depend upon the meager salaries doled out to legislators by the state. For how can a man who does not have paying investments or a job that allows frequent and extended absences support himself or a family off $2,400 per year plus $50 per month when the legislature is not in session. I would be so brave as to say he could not and would be crazy I he meaning of Water Here's the first, last and only column I'll ever write on the meaning of Watergate. In 500 words or less, I promise. Impeaching Richard Nixon would be as useful to the cleansing of the American political system as locating a glass recycling plant in Death Valley. Who's going to replace him, a man of integrity? If there's that much integrity floating around, in the system, he wouldn't have gotten to where he is now. And our taxes wouldn't be fattening a few large corporations and a few hundred small-time millionaires. While a few million others live on 50 cent lunches or no lunch at all. And several more million sweat an eight to 10 hour day to buy those 50 cent lunches. While Nixon and Agncw couldn't live within six figure incomes. And almost none of us can afford decent medical care because within the "system our welfare becomes expendable to a defense budget swollen to protect us against the perpetrators of socialized medicine. Now don't you suspect, just a bit, that Watergate may not be a cause but a product of this same "system?" The. word was bij in the 60s but is just now a passing fad. It meant that our society is run for the benefit of a few. And we're the grease that makes it run. If you don't believe the system's still around because the draft isn't and pot still is, just wait until the day you realize that everyone, including yourself, isn't free to lie on the grass and watch the clouds go by. You're doing that because the guy with the shovel down the street is keeping you there. And he's not digging because he thinks swinging a shovel is the best way to start up the ladder. He's doing it because that's where he's at and he's not going anywhere, ever, at all. Richard Nixon started out like that, almost. Except he climbed hard, virtually the only way he could climb heels first. And when he got to the top, he found that he wasn't standing on a platform. He was hanging from the top rung by his fingernails. So to make sure he didn't go down the same way he came up, he began stepping down hard on both sides of the ladder. Flatfooted, the way he was caught. And he had plenty of company and plenty of help from people who think hanging from the top means more than anything else in the world. Including their own integrity. So if you're looking for a man of integrity to replace a man who apparently has little, look again. A "system" that places personal success and personal power above all else couldn't have much integrity either. . If Richard Nixon goes to trial, let's hope the system goes with him. Then maybe no one would feel compelled to climb the ladder heels first only to be left, how does it go turning slowly, slowly in the wind? as hell if he tried. Thus, as it stands now, the General Assembly is dominated by men of property and money, men who in general are lawyers, realtors, successful farmers and either the owners or executives of business. They are mainly successful businessmen, and while this in fact does not make them bad men, it still causes the climate of opinion in Raleigh to favor the interests of men like them. In effect they are a modified aristocracy built by position and property instead of birth. At one time, rule by such an aristocracy was a major principle of American government. George Washington supported it, and it was based on the premise that the common working man was just an ignorant clown who would succumb to any demagogue who promised to walk rough-shod over the property rights of the wealthy. Like John Locke or Robert Walpole, the "Founding Fathers' of our nation feared Democracy, and John Adams himself once wrote about "those democratic principles that have done so much mischief in this country." They believed, like Samuel Johnson, that "Liberty is, to the lowest rank of every nation, little more than the choice of work or starving." Therefore, the working man was too preoccupied with surviving to be intelligent enough to serve in politics, and the obvious answer was to have "a representative of the people appointed to think for and . not with his constituents." There is some credence in these views, and if one reads about the Porteus or Gordon Riots or imagines trie fears that the North Carolina Regulators, Shay's Rebellion, or the French terror stirred up, he can easily see how the views arose. But the aristocratic tradition in America supposedly died due to the efforts of Jefferson, Jackson ar.d the Civil War. It has now been many years since Americans have sworn that the common man is unfit to vote or rule. Supposedly we have come a long way since those times and most men would say that the road we came by has climbed some mountain called "Progress." Yet, is it not amazing that the pay given to our state legislators is so low that only a modern aristocracy can afford the expense of lawmaking? Do we not no'w believe in democracy and the basic fact that the common working man can think for himself? We profess that we believe this, but our laws and policies do not show our belief. Unless the common man can find a rich benefactor, he cannot serve in our legislature. Therefore, if we are to make our policies consistent with our professed beliefs, we must raise the salaries of our legislatures in North Carolina. I am not proposing that the businessmen or lawyers be removed from the legislature. Instead, what I ask for is all men and women regardless of property or salary to have a chance to join in the legislative process of this state. The right to vote transcends economic barriers, but the right to hold office cannot if the low pay given to legislators prohibits the working man from holding such position. Therefore, let us raise the legislators salaries and open the State House doors to working men who presently cannot afford to join the General Assembly. What are the objections to this plan? First of all, some men would argue against the cost, but 1 say that justice must at all times outweigh cost. Some men would fear radical influences. For these men I have three answers. First of all, I think that it can be safely stated that the common working man is actually quite conservative. Second, I quite seriously doubt that the General Assembly would be swamped by a flood of blue-collar men. And third, I believe that many such cries of radical wolf merely stem from the fear that business interests would be hurt by the appearance of working men in the legislature. A last and even more serious objection would be political unfeasibility, for what legislator is going to pass a bill that would seem dangerous to his own interests. Also, legislators have never increased their popularity by raising their wages. Most people in the state would view such a bill as more self serving than anything else, and a proposal to initiate some sliding scale of wages would probably never be used to offset the people's fears. All in all, the subject of legislative wages is political dynamite. Yet, for once, can we not lay aside politics and seek to serve a just instead of political cause. Perhaps justice does not exist in reality, but most men talk of justice as if it truly exists. Let's return to the basic idea that most men cannot become legislators due to the low pay. the basic feeling that the right to hold office does not truly apply to all citizens. This is a wrong that transcends politics; it is a wrong that clashes with all we believe our nation is and should be. It is a wrong that disinterested men must finally fight. SI)? OJar "! tp 1 tit, Vl2ri3 Jcrdcn U.znzz'?3 Cd'.tcr Jccl Crinklsy ....... Cctsr Jetn Svs.l'.cv .......... Assoc!;! Editor E HI Ksy ... .-..Cherts Colter irn CiSbcrt ....... ..Feature CI'sr Tim Grlmsljy Asst f.'.snj. Colter
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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June 7, 1974, edition 1
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