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THE DAILY TAR HEEL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 155? PAGC TWO Darkness Visible Frank Crowther (FICTION) Before this happened. I rf member reading that you will get pood at it, as you go along. Now there's a lulaiious statement. Very funry. The smart guy who wrote th.it could never hive been at the disadvantage. I suppose it was easier for him that way. You do et r.',fd at sonic things, but they arc no more than momentary plac.it ions. And it is not the hrarinc at fir-t II is merely a deluding hangover of your lot fight. You see colors, grossly con f i.i;:ri!cd. Middrnly distorted, kaleiodoscopic, in such fphem r:d yju tit imrty that the pictures disappear I ' fore on actually c e before you discern what they may hive rcpn-M r.ted. Then you see is that fuch an indi.sprn iblc word' Po I ee it or them or whatever it is or. possjl.lv. has my mind so accustom ed it.-elf to perception th.if my thoughts have now acquired sonic nonexistent tint? Can ideas be color ed or memory tndy retain them? I suppose that is a null matter but I .shall allow myself the indul gence, since it will make it easier for you to digest IVn' slight recordings of Inst times. (I wonder why it is thct I feel this obligation to apologize for the fct of my affliction?) And now I see (there it is again that my situation should be related to you in something other than an affliction, for that word denotes pain, grief, vexation and distress. And these are the things we so shun, circumvent at every op portunity, tor our world has too long been pregnant with sui h malignancies. Shiuld I then, for my dear reader's benefit, be . . . determined? Must I con vince you that I have a well filled reserve of cour se, that I bravely face .sonic useful future, standing indominantly before my ii-.-tters (for you are my betters in that you tee), the shining paragon to b' looked up or down to, depending upon your reference0 I'm getting bitter agi'm. beginning once mtc. so let us talk of the My fabricated sight wa; beautiful during those first weeks. The brilliance of those twisted thoughts staved off, for a few second? in time, the inevitable, irrevocable actuality of my loss. Strangp devils, they were, producing their magical effects by somo secret though natural means. The illusions were sweet salve on an injured breast which did not then know (or want to know) that it was no longer ob durate. Though the sword bad penetrated, severing that tenuous nerve. I needed to be joyous in newly found occupation. Short savored ambrosia, that. I wonder if you can possibly realize how nausfou your patronising remarks sound to a blind man. Oh. the smug condescension and fetid compassion! Why ran't you learn to listen to yourself before speaking? You wnild d better if you crossed to the other side of the street and said nothing. I know I'm blind. God dmin it. and I don't need any one to remind me f the fact. It must be terrible, you say. I wish there were something I could do. Wouldn't you like to talk to some one about it? Oh, I know how you must feel. At least you haven't been deprived the use of your other senses. Disgusting bastards, all of you The children are the only honest inquisitors. Ihy seem to be genuinely interested in the me chanics of blind seeing. Don't you see anything, mis ter? How 'bout when you squeeze your" knuckles gainst them? Can you really tell what's goin' by Just listenin' to movies? Cex, I'd be awful scared bein' blind, especially when nobody's around. So am I. I'm even scared when they are around. After bvsing my first revulsion. I got used to being waited on. Maybe I shouldn't say used to it. but resigned to it. My cloistered time was all my own so there were games and projects to be de vised. For a while I counted the number of cars that passed by the porch ii an hour's time (which I could tell from the church bells). Then I listened clo.ely to see (dammit) if I could determine what make of car it was. I thought I was getting good at it, but there was no way to tell. Pedestrians were next. Man or woman, light heavy -medium, tall or short. Soon I was making up personalities for the various styles of walks. Their clothes had sound, too, if the street was quiet. The peopje in my house were easy and ceased to in terest me very quickly. It was the outsiders who were occupying. Several passed each day at almost given times. Some of them I got to know and ex pett. Hut the real strangers became the great chal lenge. It's a man, maybe 25 to 35, seems to have a suit on, possibly some kind of work clothes, look inq for some one or an address, now he's stopped, did he turn around?, no, here he comes, in front and going on by, I wonder what he was doing here or looking for? Children were very difficult to distinguish between, since many of them wore the same kind of shoos. You wouldn't think there were so many sounds unless they made up your world. Cars, starting-stopping turning passing, car doors shutting, emergency brakes being released and windows being rolled up, the (dinky sound of a Zippo tighter or the sharp snap of a Konson, water dripping-running-flushing, rain (sickly sweet, soothing, lonesome and sated with some unknowable fear), wind or breeze or gentle rustle, birds fluttering together or alone (they watch while you listen), the many sounds of wood, and, most dif ficult and perplpexing of all, the sudden noises which too quickly die or art muffled and you some times sit for long periods trying to place and ident ify them. So many sounds that it might take you the rest of your "life to list them, if you wanted to. There are also those particular things which you feel and hear at the same time, especially people. The most silent of animals makes a great deal of noise and has distinct odors. But there is something else. I feel people when they are near. They're true, jwu know, those stories about the blind sensing some one's presence. I imagined too many things at first (probably because I wished some thing or some one were there), but now I rarely mistake an other being's nearness. It's one of the few things you brag about. To yourself. In the summers, I never have difficulty telling what time of day it is. Each part of the day has its own sounds. I can wake from a dead sleep and within two or three minutes tell almost to the hour what time it is. This ;s more difficult at night when there are fewer distinctive sounds, other than the night animals and insects. (I hear bats immed iately.) The winters are less dilincated. though the sounds arc more naked as they pierce the cold air. My first winter, I remember, was much more frightening than my first summer. I suppose it was the bleakness of the exterior that Feemed to reflect within me, the barren state of nature penetrating my sight-blind security. Then, to, I was taken by those empty fears more often and my temper grew short until I became crabbed and crotchety, more so than usual (for most of us blind are ill-tempered, if you"ll notice). Actually, spring deep - breathing, stretching, premeditatedly exciting and fall light, relaxing though somewhat portentious of its suc cessor, casual with well-being are the best seasons. The best week of the year is Christmas wcek.dmt not for the reasons you may think. There are warm, filling sounds of burgling laughter, the people rais ing their pitch and the music moving constantly within and without. This is the saving break of win ter. Don't mistake my sentiments, however. Chari ty and belief and hope have not a thing to do with it. Charity is ill-founded and too often scheeming. Your beliefs are your own, having little or nothing to do with anybody else. And I find no hone save in children, not for them but in them so lnng as they remain young, so long as they are child like in the very being of children. They will learn soon enough. I sometimes think they provide and enjoy the only happiness on this earth. Possibly you have to be blind to understand that. If it is on your mind, I never think of suicide. I did. at first, quite often. But suicide has become more terrifying to me now than it ever could be to you. No longer are there thoughts of ending my obvious futility. The self-pity and deep-sobbing sor row wear themselves out, become boring. Anxiety arises periodically, but even that is not relentless. It passes, eventually. Then, only anguish remains as my contant companion. So I must try to keep what little I have, what there is, for me, not for any one else. It shouldn't shock you when I say that there is no one more ruthlessly (though necessarily) egoistical and pure ly selfish than a blind man. To tell the truth, we have hut the slightest care for others. Those whom we need are bound to us, trapped by our blind nes, and we more often than not despise them in their forced dedication. But we are somewhat with in sensible bounds, for it would be a tragic mistake for us to become attached to some one. To any one. I'm sure you must understand that. My blindness and my solitude have become sy nonymous. I find that I am forever moving away into some strange and boundless jungle of a world within, from which I fear, some clay, I may not re turn. I would like to meet that fellow who said you will get good at it, as you go along. I haven't. I haven't at all. More Lelters Pruning Season What About This? 1. The nation is at war. 2. The nation is losing the war, badly. 3. The nation must exert a vatly greater effort. Dear Editor: Griping is a universal hebby. Every day is full of too many "quizzes." "busy phones," ani more bocks to read. It seems as though we cannot ever find sat-' isfaetion. Expressing cur opinions is important. Although some com plaints are small, it makes us Icel belter to have them in the cpen. My particular peeve is Monday mrrnirg. Perhaps this day is owned by mat y as a "blues" time, but my reason isn't the usual cue. Tlv sociology class locms on this day have some sem blance cf a jur.k yr.."d. Empty and half-filled eke bottles, cups, pa pers, the sla'e. sickly tdcr cf foci and beverages (there is a law forbidding consumption of certain beverages in .date owned bui'd ings. isn't th;Te?) are not pleas ant to fjee at any time. What is the reas:n? Is it in dit.crcnee to prcperty or an in tense aislike d' sociology? We a.ked lor more study space and the sccie'f gy department aa s.vercd our need. It is one 'of. a li. A' buildings which students are allowed to use and it remains open all night for our convenience. 1 think il is only lair for us to i ec4 ,i.i '.e t h e responsibilities which accompany ibis right. We sad need-places to study. I ' Lit hovv can we expect more .'hen present advantages have been misused'.' Can this privilege' remain ours under these circum stances'.' The appearance cf each build ing is a rejection cf the entire student body. Therefore, I chal lenge you as responsible citizens of this community. Will you up held the high .standards which we ' have set for ourselves? Toni Brady Dear Sir: I thoroughly resent the publish ing of the article Thirteen Steps to Christianity. It. seems to me that the author is comparing Christianity to akholism. This is a grave injustice. I. beirg a Christian and, more specifically, r. Catholic, believe that Christian ity is something to be held sacred. It is not something to be de graded and scoffed at by com paring it to alcoholism. In Step 'No. 3. he speaks of "sneaking prayers." No true Christian has to "sneak" his prayit.;. He is not ashamed of his religion because he has no need to be. This also ceals with Step No. 11. A Chris tian is proud of his religion. He has no reason to hide it from ethers. IU ha.s no reason to be ashamed to visit his Church when ever he wants to. In fact, it is hi credit to visit his Church when he is not compelled to do so. I sincerely hope that the offend ing article has not given non Christians a fa'sc idea of the high standards of Christianity and the mcral and material good it ha.s accomplished. 7' .Ve of Jthc Smwrwiy... ' North Carotin I oiKwd tu door ' , ii Ttftwry 'jss V WfmF-'-iL&r I i'. EV Ef'. 1 taw llerbiOclt is oua rlnr ;opy qhi i959. The Pulitzer Putolisnmg Co St Louii Pojt-Dispatcb N either 5 Black N If g Norman 5mith "Now the two primal spirits, who revealed themselves in vision as Twins are the Better and the E3d in thought, word and action . . . I will speak of the Spirits twain at the first beginning of the world, cf whom the holier thus spake to the enemy: 'Neither thought nor teaching, nor wills nor beliefs nor words nor deeds, nor selves nor souls of us twain agree'." writings of Zoroaster ". . . saw the God of the World as alto gether evil, which sought only to escape by the utmost abstinences ind evasions and per versions from the black wickedness of being." H. G. Wells, Mr. Eritling Sees it Through "The sea unites, and the land divides." JamesConr ad, The Nigger of the "Narcissus" Wi)t atlp tEar Heel The official student publication of the Publication Board of the University of North Carolina wheie it is published daily except Monday and examination periods and summer terms. En'ered as second class matter in the post office in Chapel Hill, N. C, under the act of March 3, 1870. Subscription ates- $4 Oft per se mester. $7.00 per year. The Daily Tar Heel is printed by the News Inc., Carrboro, N. C. Some children were playing with an object that had washed into the shallow water of a bay near Laguna Beach; innocently c.nd curiously they swish ed the object around in the murky, near-shore-dissipated waves that curled over the sand. The spirit of the waters is ancient and, like all things that have existed long enough to become ancient, possesses boundless patience, knowing that liquidly, lightly it can eventually destroy the lands that it eternally rubs against (in caresses, jabs, burrows, slaps, or in halings) as it did Atlantis long ago, knowing that in the duration of only a few billion years 'it has by some 707c completed its task the winning of the Perhaps I have mistakenly in- battle against the fire spiri:.. which counteracts with terprefed the article. If I have, volcanic upthrusts of molten new lands from its and if someone will be so kind to flamey chambers below and of evaporating rays that give me the- correct interpretation, it sends down from its outpost in the heavens the I vviil willingly apologize. But the sun above. manner in vvir.cn uns article is written is certainly misleading. Edmund C, De V'ito, Jr. Editor: The editor should remember when urging the nation to "a vast ly greater effort." that one .should never start vast projects with half vast ideas. Haive Harris or White; r hades Of Gray And thus near Laguna Beach that day there was this destroyed and returned possession with which the children played. It waii a human leg. The picnickers and beach ball tossers left their occupations to come down to the water's edge and look at this limb which has been torn from its body, masticated by some agent of the water spirit, sucked of its blood by the hungry waters themselves, and sent ashore to remind the elder ones of the aims it (the water spirit) patiently projected for the lands belonging to the fire spirit, knowing that the elder ones would later impart to their children, who were as yet innocent of the meaning of this discovery, that indelible fear that all people are aware of, if only subliminally because of the sophistication which seems to be so popular these days in con trast to the time when sea serpents and other mani festations of thew ater spirit wore openly acknowledged. Editor DAVIS B. YOUNG Associate Editor FRANK CROWTHER Editorial Asst. M'LOU REDDEN Managing Editors CHUCK ROSS LARRY SMITH Business Manager WALKER BLANTON Advertising Manager Asst. Advertising Manager . BARRY ZASLAV RICHARD WE1NER News Editors DEE DANIELS EDWARD NEAL MINER Sports Editor Feature Editor Coed Editor ELLIOTT COOPER MARY ALICE ROWLETTF JOSIE MORRIf Chief Photographer Night Eidtors .. .... PETER NESS CHANDLER BRIDGES Editor: We who are desperately con cerned r.bout the future cf Africa and more specifically of Sou. he; n Africa, were happy to have Arch bishop de Blank tell the Univer sity of North Carolina something cf the present picture of Africa. I :i:n sorry that the account of the ta'.k written by Mr. -RicharJ Biircms in today's issue of the Daily Tar Heel dees not report correctly many of the things that his Grace toli us 0:ie item in particu'ar needs correction. It is stated that "In the Dutch Colonies there are thres million whites and two billion blacks." There are, in fact, no Dutch (Netherlands.1 colonies in Africa at all. What bis Grace did say was; "In the Union cf South Africa there are three million whites, nine million Africans, two million ecloreds and half a mil lion Indians." The Press has a duty in thy enlightenment cf people of good will concerned with the welfare of Africa and my country in par ticular, to be accurate in report ins. , J. J. Frankel Occasionally it (the water spirit) takes some possession dear to the fire spirit's continents and islands, destroys this possession, and casts it or part of it back in ridicule and defiance of its enemy as a token that the battle is being lost. Thus there are parts of ships off Cape Ilatteras. and once in a particularly frivolous moment the entire crew of a ship was spirited away while the ship itself was completely intact (even with the crew's eat aboard) gracefully sitting, upright in the sand; thus there are whitened, twisted, as ufeless-as-anything-ean-be pieces of driftwood guided to the shore at night; thus there are cans and bottles found some of which contain the scribbleu soui-chilleo. sciawlings of a man Who knows suddenly that he is one of those possessions that the water spirit has chosen to take. In this last of the ages be ye aware of this bat tle of the parts of the' all and know that your cre ator and protector is losing, that which sowed the living things on the face of the lands as a carpet protective against the corrossive waters, that spirit is losing . . . fresh waters that the fire spirit arduous ly purified o poisons to use in feeding the carpet of living things these fresh waters are diminishing: "New York City Limits W?ter Consumption; Geo logical Report Cites Failing Water Tables" ... the poisoned waters are coming ever inland useless is the Caspian, Dead Sea, Great Salt Lake, other bodies of water what is next to be dried or made saline? . . . drought! crop failure! dust bowl! aye, the rain falls come- more seldom for less water can be cap tured from the seas . . . erosion & fire & covering with concrete cities, taking the source of feed away from the hungry carpet of living things . . .the gradual melting of polar icecaps to flood . . . ab sence for countless millenia of subterranean push ings powerful enough to form new mountains. Verily, the last age has come and is being ex pended, as when a heavy log rocks back and forth a few times before you begin to make it roll, so have the waters advanced and retreated in preparation for the final conquest. Hope that you live a short enough life so that yours is not among the hands that will clutch emptily at the air as the fluids of the water spirit close arouid the wrist; hope that your life span will oe contained within the times when there are only symbols, hints, foreshadowing? rejoice while you can when you see but wreck age and bleached-boughs and legs. An Editorial Davis B. Young On the front page c: today's pa per is a story concerning the rights of students to vote in the coming Bond Issue Election. Throughcut the past few years there has been a constant contro- ' versy raging as to whether stu dents at this University should be allowed' to participate in elections as if they were residents of Chap el Hill. It is .the considered opinion of this paper that students who at tend this University should be considered residents of Chapel Hill, Orange County and the State of North Carolina. Certainly, if you spend a minimum of nine months a year in one spot, that is your home. You spend a majori'y of your time here, a majority of ' your money here, and have a majority of jour friends in the Chapel Hill area. Therefore, it is" -clear that you are residents of this town, county and state. The State of North Carolina states that in order to vote yor must have been a resident of this state for one year and of your county for thirty days. Certainly there are a number of student, who qualify under this statute Yet, they have in effect been denied the precious right of vot ing, largely because they cannot honestly say that they will live here after graduation. There are over 4,000 students on this campus of legal age. They have left their homes and come here to spend four years. They are currently better acquainted with this J'own and its functioning than the towns from which they came. They are rqady to assume the responsibilities of citizenship in this community. The cn'y possible reason for denying students the right to vote in this town other than the min imum residence requirements and age, would be if they are already registered to vote in, another area. And so with this as a brief ex planation we cannot urge you strongly enough to at least make an attempt to register for the Bond Issue Election. This bond issue is of such importance to the student body that indeed a great deal of the future of this Univer sity will be settled when the re sults are in. If we are successful in passing the 34.4 million dollar measure, we will have gone a long way towards fulfilling the needs of a growing academic community. The ten benefits which will come to Chap el Hill out of this Bond Issue will total more than five million dol lars. Isn't five million dollars worth a few minutes of time to register? In the age of American compla cency, when the rights of citizen ship are taken for granted by our people, we find a situation in our own back yard which can only be termed disenfranchisement. This day we will find out just how much the right to vote means to the students of this University. TARTAN TALE Old George is a Scot and an ex-miner. Not long ago, when I called on him in Glasgow1, the conversation turned to the death of one of his cronies. "I'm told that Harry left or 000 pounds," I remarked admir ingly. "That he didn't" George said. I expressed surprise. "Harry left no money," hs went on. "He was takan from it." The Reader's Digest COSTLY TASTE Government is like cars or houses nobody would be sati fied with the kind they could af ford. Columbia State ' - NO, If WAS )r YOU ( YOU i.tT ATMS'- ) HA.r YOiSS SO 5AT zee! i v a v::t va ) 60&cw ?iMf ' V usso J 'MMyzixKkosopy&or) ) I I WAS f2;1iNf 0f6HTf" I PCS NOT HIM . AN'" I PuSAg? S 3s S&WcZOZY-CJ.S-SfZSAL. ASi'.MCfSg XlPlN'fPOA V J SO YOU MUST fy, J ly'v Ki6ww v CP to y r z UJ a. A INCLINED YCU,CMASUE I. -V'"' ' .A-" K"--.r? BUT OH TWF OTHER MAND 03E Ml'ST BS CAUTIOUS IN 002 THINKIM5. ()f) We MUST BE CAQErtJL NOT TO ThROU) OUT TME BABY IL'ITH THE BATH : If PLEA6E PARDCM THE ) EXPRESSION y in n z c: r-N
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Oct. 17, 1959, edition 1
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