Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / March 19, 1968, edition 1 / Page 2
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Scott Goodfellow Site Imig 3F .3 hy Sign 76 Years of Editorial Freedom Bill Amlong,Editor Don Walton, Business Manager It Used To ave All The Answers To It finally happened here. Campus police Monday arrested 15 anti-war demonstrators staging a sit-in at Gardner Hall to impede Dow Chemical Co. recruiting ef forts. Just like police have been doing on campuses throughout the nation this entire academic year, whenever anti-Vietnam demonstra tions went beyond the law . So where does this University go from here? Or, better put: Where should the University com munitystudents, faculty and ad ministratorsgo from here? It's rather hard to say much more so than it would have been if Monday had been five years ago and the UNC students arrested had been demonstrating during Chapel Pill's Civil Rights heyday. ' Things were a lot clearer then. The issues were far more sharply defined: the students involved were out to crack this town's "progressive" veneer and do away with the ugly and blatant racism that lurked underneath. BUT TIMES have changed. And the tactics, such as sit-ins, haven't, then at least the issues have. Civil Rights wasn't the pro testors' thing Monday. The Viet nam war was. And to make things even more confusing, the target of the demonstration wasn't some racist restaurant owner on Franklin Street, with whom a direct con frontation could be had concerning Ms policy of segregation. Instead, , the target was a Dow Chemical Co. recruiter, who was being impeded because his firm is the manufacturer of napalm, a rather hideous incendiary jelly that is being used by U.S. troops to pro secute the war in Vietnam. The sit-in came after the recruiter declined to debate the morality of making napalm for use inVeitnam. The confrontation was hazy. The demonstrators wanted to debate with the recruiter, who is actually in no more of a position to argue the morality of his firm's complicity in the Vietnam war than a political science professor, as an employee of the state, is in the possession to mount a defense for this state's not having open housing legislation. Although either one of these persons could speak personally on the subjects, each would lack the proper authority to do so. Neither the recruiter nor the professor make the policies, and neither should have to defend it. k THAT, ANYWAY, is the logic of normal times. The times now, however, are anything but normal, and the logical solutions that used to work during the Civil Rights movement somehow just don't seem to plug in anymore. Why? It's because there's this war going on in Vietnam -a place which a lot of people hadn't even heard of during 1963 and this war has changed just about everything on the American scene. (The thing that it has perhaps changed most is the methods which H Pamela Hawkins, Associate Editor Wayne Hurder, Managing Editor Rebel Good, News Editor Kermit Buckner, Advertising Manager Be Easier dissenters use to protest it. Ergo, the hazy con frontations. . . What is now important many persons are beginning to think is to impede the U.S. effort in Viet nam at every level: by refusing in duction into the Armed Services, by attempting to disrupt draft centers and by even attempting to prevent Dow Chemical Co. from coming onto a college campus to hire persons who will be involved in even the slightest way with the manufacture of napalm. THE WAR, however, continues despite these efforts. The Selective Service System continues to func tion, and Dow continues to manufacture napalm which con tinues to sear the flesh off North Vietnamese soldiers, women and children alike. Meanwhile, students throughout the U.S. are getting thrown in jail because they try to stop it. And there arises the dilemna that the only persons who are being directly hurt by this form of dissent are the dissenters themselves, the youths who go to federal peniten tiaries for bucking the draft, or the 15 persons who had to post $50 bond each following their arrest at the sit-in Monday. They can-counter, perhaps, that they- are becoming martyrs, and that through their struggles the American people are beginning to ! realize that the war going on is evil, and is even opposed to the best interests of the United States. Perhaps people are beginning to think this way. Perhaps the 42 per cent of the Democratic primary vote that went to peace candidate Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire presidential race is an index of how right they are. MEANWHILE, HOWEVER, the same people who must judge whether or not the war is wrong, must also decide whether the forms of protesting it are wrong. For ex ample, is it right to prevent Dow from exercising its right to free speech by recruiting on campus? Or are the issues today so im- -portant is it so imperative to stop the Vietnam war? that Dow's free speech should be breeched? The questions of 1968 are hard' ones to answer, much harder than" the ones of 1963 seem i ir retrospect. They are questions that are going to have to be answered and soon by the University com munity, however. . Unfortunately, we don't have the answers in our hip pocket. And we're sorry we don't. The Daily Tar Heel accepts all letters' for publication provided they are typed, double-spaced and signed. Letters should be no longer than 300 words in length. We reserve the right to edit for libelous statements. One of basketball com mentator "Bones" McKinney's more famous remarks is, If you're a Carolina fan right now, you're mighty happy. With a minute and a half to go the Tar Heels are leading by one point." Uniquely, this sort of confusion typifies a lot of what's going on today. Heretical as it may seem to anti-war pickets, William Buckley, Jr., or Billy Graham, I am convinced that our na tional confusion generation gaps, credibility gaps, strained relations with Cambodia's basketball prince all this is a very healthy sign. Try as they might, though, even the most august col umnists can only tell their readers about what is hap pening at a given moment they can't zero in on any overall perspective. The inability to decipher what the world "hang-up" is, strikes home very quickly when you :f 'Ws r Iff!) I T V T - 'l JV Geor To the Editor: -i According to a recent magaizne arti-' cle, George Wallace is in the catbird seat. Some would like to put him in another kind of seat, especially all you beardos, weirdos, and -pseudos. Unfortunately, Wallace has strong backing from "the men in the street," this country's great backbone (caudal end) of cab drivers, garbage men, olive-stuffers, gun assemblers, piclde-dippers, bigots, and generalized nigger-haters. CatstrophicaUy, they're the majority. But all is not lost. The day can be sav ed, at some costs. Social Psychology has theories of cognitive consistency and by becoming a little incongrous and a bit out of balance, we can use them to out Wallace old George. The idea is that if you associate in your minds two things of opposite value, or dissociate (i.e., see as not belonging together) two things of the same value (either both positive or both negative), something's got to give. In the minds of the WaUacites, naturally, George has a highly positive value. And all those hip pies, commies, beardies, and other anti Ameriklaners George despises conversely have a negative value. So, in the minds of the WaUacites two opositely valued things are strongly dissociated, and all's well. The trick is to get the minds of the WaUacites out of balance. What would happen if all those people, all those anti Ameriklaners suddenly en d o r s e d WaUace? His charisma is not brains, or evern brawn, but his strong backing of those Ameriklan ideas which he defends with a vituperative tongue. If those against whom he vitupers, those Red blooded commies, would do an ostensible far-right-about-face and back George, the WaUacites would have mental chaos. In their minds, Ameriklan ideals would stay the same however, George would lose positive value, and the Beards would gain a bit less negative value (according to a subtle aspect of the theory). But the Wierdos would soon do something which would make them more negative again (like speaking in teUigently), and if they, stul endorsed George, he would drop even lower in value in the minds of the WaUacites. If this kept on long enough, George and the Pseudos would soon be equaUy despised by the Ameriklaners, and since two things of negative value would associated together, the minds of masses would again be placid. But, who would beUeve that Heroes liked George? Fear not be the our for predictably, WaUace would vigorously deny affiliating or consorting with his new-found sycophants, and the more he denied it and the more the Pseudos ex ask yourself, "Is it more im portant for me to be concerned about my Residence College, or the abolision of capital punishment, or the Vietnam War?" ' Confusion at home and abroad confounds the answer. The country divides neatly in half over the War, and yet few leaders back the only anti-war candidate. The public will like ly have a choice in November between two hawks. MAIL BOMBER Crime in the cities is the chief topic of the State of the Union address, a psychopath delivers sticks of dynamite to San Francisco mailboxes, and the nation throbs to a romantic instrumental called "Love Is Blue." Meanwhile, the hippie move ment fades as the anti-social basis for it is absorbed into society. A baby doctor is ar rested for his anti-war ac tivities. One of our mcst in tegrated cities has much of its downtown area leveled by fire and violence, and the President waits a week to comment on a Civil Disorder report which he ordered. Here at UNC, on a lower plane, the dangers of South Campus divorcing itself from the academic campus are pro menaded before the apethetic and concerned alike. And the Peace Vigil stands. What does it all mean? How do we fit into it? Far from being an in troduction to a new body of thought, these two questions are the spirit of today. It is from this point that the critics begin to spread. U.S. ON SKIDS A UNC history professor concluded his class the other day by deciding that much of the aforementioned confusion means that the U.S. is on the skids. We had our heyday, he w aniace pressed their love for him, the less this "creduility gap" would become. And the less it would become, the better our plan would work. Another problem would be that the more the Group committed themselves to praising George, the more they would ac tuaUy start to change their opinions about him and begin to like the irascible Uttle feUow. (Again, this is predictable by stfll .ii. i it j ii e another of those multitudinous theories of attitude change.) But, as honest warmth showed through, George would have to start lik ing them back (after aU, he is a "good The Daily Tar Heel is pub lished by the University of North Carolina Student Publi cations Board, daily except Mondays, examinations periods and vacations. Offices are on the second floor of Graham Memorial. Telephone numbers: editorial, sports, news 933-1011; bus iness, circulation, advertising 933-1163. Address: Box 1080, Chapel Hill, N. C, 27514. Second class postage paid at ,UJS. Post Office in Chapel Hill, N. C. Subscription rates: $9 per year; $5 per semester. Me Too Dept. ftLL OURS - noted, and we don't know when it's over. Oh, one can invoke McLuhan and charge it all off to the trials of moving to a higher stage of relationships between people, but that really isn't very satisfactory to a con cerned resident of Teague dormitory. Adaptation, however, is much of the meat of the problem. What one is adapting to is the question. The University stu dent who is interested enough to want to know what he. should really be concerned about must have some means of deciding. The quest for this means of decision has led to the heretical attitude that the stu dent must simply make an arbitrary choice of what to be interested in, and then push the boundaries of authority, morality, and-or society until Caudal smbbotI Christian"), and this would tend to reverse the entire situation to its starting point, the current atmosphere. HopefuUy, this wouldn't happen till Christmastime, 1968, by which time the masses would have stormed the polls to protest the non protesting protestors. So, turn in your McCarthy pin. Aren't you glad you're with George? Don't you wish all your friends were? Out-Christian him, for Christ's sake. J. S. Busey lit. 3 'Hang Ouf Not For Real To the Editor: The Experimental College course "Let It AU Hang Out" is unbeUevably ludicrous. This is because there exist tacitly understood social ground rules where there should be none. Such ec centric behaviours and attitudes in a course where intolerance should be a foreign concept. To accept such people who possess or advocate such "strange" points of view into the group would be to permit an assault on the social sensitivities which most if not aU of the participants of the course and everyone else have. It is pro bable that such an assault would either embarass or repulse these and many peo over A year ago I wrote an editorial castigating the stu dent body president for remarks that he made to a na tional press winch, in my opi nion then, did not well represent the student body. The president. Bob Powell, w?s pushing these same boun daries of authority and thought which give the impression of such confusion today. THE PILL LOCALLY Shortly afterward, the DTH engaged in the brief push to allow the University infirmary to supply birth control pills to undergraduate coeds who ask ed for them. The ensuing volume of mail showed that the issue was one of great in terest, although not on the UNC campus. The editorials were not written with the in tention of having the Infirmary accede (and it didn't), but rather in provoking thought on the issue. The stimulation turned out to be more effective on the national level (thanks to the Associated Press) than on the local level. It is through actions such as this one that University students find the plane of ac tivity in which they are in terested. It is useless to cite endless examples of conflict between developing lines of authority in the East and West, in dormitories and in cities, in distinct social strata. The only coordination between these areas is that the persons in volved are pursuing their goals in similar fashion (or perhaps trying to locate goals in a similar fashion). No, it is a gross misin terpretation to say that the U.S. is on the skids. The diverse logic, demonstrations, social movements, even violen ce are examples of ex traordinary interest by many people in some area which happens to be just broad enough for their com prehension. The University student, too, finds his plane of activity and interest. Even the confusion over the "national hang-up" is a sign of vitality. ple, since this would represent a challenge to their and every "weHad justed" middle class American's narrow mindedness. They and most everyone, even in "Let It AU Hang Out," play games to conceal their true selves, notwithstanding their saying, "I want to see people and have them see me as we really are, not as we act." Could you reaUy stand to see peo ple as they reaUy are? I doubt it. In fact, in clear violation of the two crowning graces of Christian ethics (Matt. 7. 1-5, 1. Cor. 13. 1-3) you would offer, no doubt, quick condemnation on certain people. For example, would this group of the "free and uninhibited expression of the self truly accept at their "show and teU" time the following person or persons: so meone who brought who bought a box of needles and proceeded to puncture his skin because he was a masochist and got his jollies in such f asion, or a person who was a sadist, or a dope addict? I suspect that these people would be asked, politely of course, to go through drop-add. But this is why "Let It AU Hang Out" is so absurd. It is not truly free and uninhibited. It is composed of a small set of people who in reaUty fit into a narrow range of interests and can think ol nothing more exotic to do than to play red rover or fly kites. Yet those whe participate in such a course are sup posedly finding freedom not realizing that "the joy of the hypocrite is but for moment." Oedipus Ilippolytus A UNC Student he fesls he has control what he's looking for. -From The Western Carolinian
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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March 19, 1968, edition 1
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