Letters to the editor
S SI H f if
Opinions of The Daily Tar Htel are expressed on Us editorial page. All
unsjned editorials are the opinions of the editor and the stiff. Letters and
columns represent only the opinions of the individual contributors.
Saturday, February 27, 1971
Tom Gooding. Editor
Awards of the
Headline of the week award To
the Chapel Hill Weekly which ran
the following head on their second
section front Wednesday: "UNC
Asks Legislature To Sweeten Pot."
The 'Thanks for the help, but
where were you last year?" award
of the week To UNC Chancellor
J. Carlyle Sitterson who refused to
speak against the war last spring
during the strike, but who this
week decided to join a big business
anti-war group.
? Right on, Chancellor.
-s
The "You never really know
who your friends are" award of the
week To DTH News Editor Mike
Parnell who answered the phone
one day this week to hear a voice
tell him a bomb would go off in the
oflice m precisely 3u mmutes.
Parnell said nothing to anyone, but
25 minutes later he got up and
went to the snack bar. "I just
happened to get hungry," he said.
;
I The "Hit 'em where it hurts"
award of the week-To the South
Campus Coed who a week ago
wrote a letter to the editor
complaining that UNC males are a
bunch of sex maniacs. The males,
of course, immediately responded
with a flood of letters crying,
tWho? Me? Surely you jest."
Tr The Sir Isaac Newton Memorial
Mathematics award of the
week-To the UNC budget office
which, through a "slight
computational error" managed to
over-estimate the 1970-71 Student
Government income by $14,000.
Everyone in the office wins a free
class ticket for Math 1 .
The "Isn't bureaucracy
wonderful?" award of the
week To the U.S. Army
intelligence network which, during
a peace demonstration in Colorado,
had spies spying on its own spies.
i
it
t 79 Years of Editorial Freedom
Tom Gooding, Editor
Rod Waldorf Managing Ed.
Mike Parnell News Editor
Rick Gray Associate Ed.
Chris Cobbs Sports Editor
i Frank Parrish .... . Feature Editor
Ken Ripley .... National News Ed.
John Gellman Photo Editor
Terry Cheek ..Nfcht Editor
Robert Wilson
Janet Bernstein
Business Mgr.
. . .Adv. Mgr.
Ken Ripley
M ltD
Where is religion heading? What is the
current state of religious feeling on
campus? These are hard questions to
answer. I didn't realize how hard it was
until I began three weeks ago to analyze
in depth the religious scene on campus.
The problem was that very few people,
if any, really know where religion stands
at UNC. Most of the chaplains, ministers,
administrators, and the students I talked
to whose collected comments and
activites would fill three pages of the
DTH-were able to tell me how they were
responding to religious change. But the
essential question, "Religion on campus:
growing or fading?", still remains
anyone's guess.
The evidence I found goes both ways,
fueling both the pessimist and optimist.
The pessimist can cite declining church
attendance, a realignment of religious
centers to the periphery of campus life,
and trends towards a more
The Renes Descartes "Brilliant
Deduction" award of the week To
pollster George Gallup whose
weekly look at the feelings of
Americans revealed Friday that
people with long hair have leftist
political views and people with
short hair tend to lean to the right
politically.
The "Five Faces of Eve" award
of the week To North Carolina
Governor Robert Scott who one
day decries the political in-fighting
among state-supported universities
and the next day comes out and
throws his support behind one of
the most guilty schools in the state.
Party pooper of the week
award To the University official
who found out that Zeta Beta Tau
fraternity planned to have a
stripper appear at the house this
weekend and ordered the show
cancelled.
Sexist of the week award-To
Zeta Beta Tau fraternity for
scheduling the stripper in the first
place.
The Joe McCartney Memorial
Award of the week To Mrs. Muriel
Shapp, wife of the governor of
Pennsylvania, who refuses to move
into the new governor's mansion
until the present twin beds are
replaced with a queen-sized double
bed. "I happen to think," Mrs.
Shapp said, "that twin beds are
un-American."
And besides they give two
pinkoes room to hide.
Lizard of the week award Joe
Eagles has locks on this award until
further notice.
I SEE
THE way
society-oriented and less God-oriented
campus ministry as signs of the decline
and fall of religion on campus.
The optimist can look to an upsurge of
enrollment in religion courses, the
growing presence of religious themes in
culture, the slight rises of participation in
some church and center activities, the
growing momentum of the evangelistic
Christian groups smong some students,
and the apparent increase of inner
"soul-searching" among students to find
hope for modern religion.
Trends further confuse the issue. The
biggest and most obvious trend is to move
away from institutional religion to a more
personal religious expression. Yet
chaplain Carl Culberson has found, more
students this year wanting to enter the
ministry. Eastern religions are growing in
popularity, observers note, yet not only
have eastern religion movements -such as
the. followers of Baha'i and
t y t "v . .
: 5LAc
Pes
OS
Room km uece
To the editor:
As a result of this letter, I hope the
DTH can publish the regulations drawn
up by this University governing
inspection of dorm rooms. I would like to
know exactly what the inspector is
allowed to do. Can he open a closet door?
Can he rummage through someone's
drawers in search of illegal appliances?
The rules as I have understood them
are that the inspector is not allowed to
search any closed drawers or closets. He
must be accompanied by a maid when he
enters a room; can she restrain him in any
way if he does do any of these prohibited
things?
I am well aware of the fact that the
inspections are for our own safety. Walter
Hamilton, of the Physical Plant, informed
me of the reasons behind the searches,
and I agree that too many appliances
constitute a fire hazard. It seems to me,
however, that the way in which the
inspections are carried out is an invasion
of privacy. I do not object so much to the
rationale for the operations as I do to the
methodology.
Aside from the inspections themselves,
I want to discuss the physical structure of
the older dorms, especially Cobb, with
which I am most familiar. My first
question is why, in this day and time,
when we depend on electricity to such a
great extent and have so many electrical ,
appliances that we use almost daily, are
three rooms put on a circuit that can only
support six volts? That way, it is so easy
to blow a fuse, causing inconvenience for
at least six people. Re-wiring is only one
of the difficulties in the older dorms.
Physical facilities themselves are
inadequate. Ostensibly, we are not
allowed to cook in the rooms. The
physical plant proudly points to the fact
that we have a kitchen that we can use.
The problem here is that there is one
kitchen to be used by over 300 girls.
Needless to say, the facilities are grossly
inadequate.
It seems that one possible solution to
the problem would be to reserve some of
the mom rent from each semester to be
channelled into a fund for improvements
or renovations to each dorm. It seems'
only fair, even with the outstanding debt
the university owes, to use some of this
revenue for physical changes to the
dorms. If money could be used in this
way to make the older buildings more
attractive to live in, perhaps the
university would not be quite so far in
the red.
I invite response from the physical .
plant and from any other students who
have complaints along the same line. If
my suggestion could be followed, I think
many people would benefit in the long
run.
Melissa Daniel
419 East Cobb
IT THS CONCERT
siinnmsinni tares stadeetts to reli
Krishna failed to capture widespread
campus interest, Dr. Shutz of the-religion
department rioted an unusual "strain" of
revived interest in orthodox Christianity.
The appearance and strenth of
evangelistic, orthodox . Christians and
their cousins, the "Jesus-freaks," further
complicates analysis.
During my interviews, chaplian Bob
Johnson probably went as far factually as
anyone else when he said, "We're dealing
with a different world." But if no one
really knows what is happening, plenty of
people are willing to take a guess.
One such guess was offered by former
Tar Heel columnist John Agar, who
pessimistically feels that religion is dying.
He believes the recent upsurges in
religious interest, especially in orthodox
Christian theology, are manifestations of
America's new mood of nostalgia-a fad
that when it ends will fatally weaken the
church.
Students are 'had'
by Student Stores
To the editor:
Once again the omnipotent
omnipresent money-grubbing Student
Stores lays a milestone in the basic
human philosophy that "man jest ain't
worth ah dam."
Mind you, I'm not complaining about
the blue books going up 2 cents
"accidently" just before Fall exams,
neither am I griping about being frisked,
X- rayed, scrutinized, and televised as I
enter and leave the textbook division, nor
would I ever think of becoming enraged
as I pay $9.95 for a $6.00 book. All these
things are merely rules of the game and
part of the terrible task that poor Mr.
Shetley must endure in order that he may
better serve the poor student and provide
scholarships for us all.
What, however, does get me in the,
you guessed it, is that the local Eckard's
can (does) undersale ye ole S.S. a grand
total of 59 cents on such a hot item as a
typewriter ribbon. Not only was said item
the same quality at Eckerd's but also it
was the same name brand as the item at
the Student Stores.
Henceforth, the poor befuddled
student need not worry of being "had" as
he enters those golden portals of the local
gip shop, he can consider it a fact.
David Simpson
Route One
Walking on bricks
will save the grass
To the Editor:
I read with extreme interest the
editorial about "Bricks, bricks and "
on Feb. 26. I am in complete agreement
with the author of the article except for
the last paragraph. It is a well known fact
that most (if not all) species of grass will
not survive the constant trampling which
they receive on one of the local campus
paths (the non-bricked type that are so
common). For some reason many
students believe the old adage that the
shortest distance between two points is
across the grass. Also believing the adage,
it seems that the University Walk
i Department has tried to brick up the
existing dirt paths so that the rest of the
campus can remain green and lovely
(Sounds like a nice thing to do!).
Unfortunately, once completed, each of
the new brick walks only leads to other
disembarkation points where the students
can once again test the ability of
genotypes to withstand trampling.
IS SORT
OF
Agar has a keen critical mind, and his
guess may be a good one. Larger national
trends show that the institutional church
over the last decade .has slumped
considerably since the last "revival" of
religious interest in the early 1950s. Polls
show students massively turning off from
the institutional church. The institutions
have also suffered declines in both
membership and financing. The apparent
revival of interest in orthodox
Christianity, seen in the growth of
evangelistic groups and spontaneous
religious interest, could very well burn
itself out-and burn out the institutional
church with it. Especially since both
evangelistic goups and spontaneous
relisious interest are person-oriented
rather than institution-fostering.
But my guess is that religion is
growing, not fading as Agar believes. The
institutional church, whether or not the
pace of religious "revivial" increases, is
ins Mvaoe
In order for the constant construction
of brick walks to stop before the campus
becomes one big brick, I would surest
that you support either of the following
solutions:
1 . Take the campus ticket pushers and
place them at strategic points so that they
can use their traffic directing abilities to
keep students on the present walks.
2. Ask the students to consider the
continuance of the beauty of this unique "
campus as part of their responsibility and
stay on the walks.
Dermis Whigham
Coker Hall
Ticket distribution
grossly inequitable
To the Editor:
As probably everyone knows, there are
gross inequities in the method now used
to distribute basketball tickets. Often
those who come early to stand in line will
be the ones pushed to the rear of the line
when the mad rush starts for position. If
I may, let me recommend a solution.
Instead of having lines, I recommend
that those wishing to get a ticket, go to
Carmichael at a predetermined time and
get the seat they want. At this
predetermined time, say 5:00 o'clock,
University employees could then hand
out the tickets to the respective
seatholders. Boundaries could be marked
for those seats reserved for Ram's Club
members.
I believe this method would be much
fairer than the present one. With the
present system, those students waiting 4
the longest are not guaranteed a good
seat. This plan would eliminate the mad
rush for position and insure those who
come early that they will get a seat of a
quality relative to their waiting time.
In any case, some change is necessary
and can be accomplished if the athletic
department recognizes this need.
Joseph C. Robbins
309 Lewis
Reader dislikes
Leaven's review
To the Editor:
Reviewing a reviewer can be
dangerous one tends to speak more from
personal opinion than from the facts but
the general ineptitude of The Daily Tar
Heel reviews during the past few weeks
has driven me off the deep end.
Case in point the most recent review
of the movie "The Twelve Chairs." Mr.
"Leaven" simply does not know what he
is talking about. He calls 'Twelve Chairs"
. one of the "least inventive" of this year's
comedies. A joke does not have to be new
to be funny, a bit of comic business can
be someone else's invention, but the
success or failure depends on how the old
joke and the old business are used. In the
sense that "Chairs" had very little "new"
material, it was not inventive; but the
modern style of such directors as Robert
Altman (MASH) would have been out of
-place in a period movie. And 'The
Twelve Chairs" had a definite period feel
to it.
Mr. 'Leaven' claims that Mel Brooks
has not written a slapstick farce. If not,
then what is it? He claims "Chairs" lacks
"singlemindedness" and there are too
many digressions from the main plot.
"The Twelve Chairs" is one of the most
singleminded movies I have ever seen the
chairs are the most important element in
the movie, and everyone and everything is
concerned with getting the last chair.
What comic digressions?
Finally, Mr. "Leaven" attempts to
show he has artistic insight by giving us a
quote from James Agee to the effect that
a good gag must have some kind of a
topper to it. He claims that 'The Twelve
Chairs" fails because the gags aren't
topped, and then proves his lack of
observation by using the most carefully
constructed gag in the picture. Ron
Moody is scolding his mother4n-law for
hiding the jewels, screaming "How could
you do such a thing?" with several
being hurt badly by the growing number
of people who are interested in religion
and not in the church. The church as an
institution may "slip away." But the
institutional church is undergoing change,
too, and has yet to show that it should or
cannot survive. The institution has shown
its durability.
More importantly, however, I feel
religion and religious interest will grow
regardless of its institutional fate. The
current revival of religious
in terest especially "in orthodox
Christianity-is occuring mostly outside
the institution. Religious interest is
growing because religion is meeting more
fundamental needs. Students have grown 1
more inner-directed, more searching in
their quest for meaning, fulfillment, and
the "best way to really live," as one boy
said. This search, these questions, are
religious questions. .
0
liii V
J
variations. She begs him to forpve her, so
he relents and kisses her forehead, hiring
the mark of a rubber stamp on her cheek
"U.S.S.R. Department of
Records -CANCELED." Our reviewer
misses the buildup of the gag ("How
could you do such a thing?") ar.d misses
the topper (the rubber stamp).
I am sure that Mr. "Leaven" missed
the serious overtones of the film in his
search for the perfect gag. There is a
definite theme of what greed can do to
people that is carefully set forth -the
Pavlovian response of Ron Moody to the
closing bell in the Museum of Furniture
scene, Dom DeLuise's cry "Oh God,
you're so strict!", and Frank LargeHa's
foxy, scheming characterization.
Even more unforgivable than
incredibly inept reviews is reviewing
movies that one has not seen. I, for one,
am getting good and tired of seeing
movies that I thought were good being
damned by one reviewer just because all
the other reviewers and critics thought it
was bad. (By the way, the general
consensus of critics on "Rio Lobo" is
that it was everything it was supposed to
be-good, solid entertainment-not "one
their (John Wayne and Howard Hawks)
worst."
I'm
not going to commit
Mr.
"Leaven's" error and condemn him for
his bad work; I just wonder where he
would ever get a job as a critic and how
long he would keep it.
Paul F. Wilson
1304 Granville Towers
Pressure needed
for lower prices
To the editor:
As I was walking down Franklin Street
about noon today I received one of the
most pleasant surprises I have received
during my past one and a half years here
in Chapel Hill. I am referring to the
picketing of Harry's restaurant by about
half a dozen people who were protesting
high prices and low wages. Now, I have
no particular gripes concerning Harry's in
particular that is, no gripes other than
those which I direct to nearly all the
Chapel Hill businesses. It is to the fact
that finally someone is publicly doing
something aobut the outrageous manner
in which the Chapel Hill businessmen do
business that prompts my writing this
letter of support and congratulation, u
In the time I have been living1 in
Chapel Hill I have bought very little
merchandise here in town, but rather
have traveled to Durham to do my
shopping. I am fortunate in that I have a
car; I realize that many UNC students do
not. I have not been the only one to
recognize this fact, though, for the
owners of the businesses in Chapel Hill
have adjusted their prices and attitudes in
a manner which clearly indicates that
they know they have a monopoly upon a
very large portion of the student dollar.
Their prices are outrageous (often as
much as 50 more than prices outside of
the community), and their attitudes
towards customers is simply
unbelievable in any competitive
community they would be out of
business in a matter of months.
I will admit that the state of Chapel
Hill business is one of my pet peeves.
However, as many members of this
community will admit, my complaints are
far from baseless. I have discussed this
situation time and again with friends, and
have convinced as many people as
possible to spend their money outside of
town. Now, though, something really
positive has been done out in the open.
To these people I give my wholehearted
support. They have started something
which could become very significant
within this community. The more
students realize that they are the ones
upon whom the Chapel Hill economic
situation depends, and the more they
pressure the stores to give decent service
and fair prices, the sooner a reasonable
cost of living will invade the community.
And believe me, the students, as a united
body, have the power to pull it off.
Bernard H. Davis
Green way Park
Religion will grown because these
questions will multiply. "Frustration and
cynical despair" with the political
process, one chaplain ventured, have
contributed greatly to student
"withdrawal into themselves."
Sociological trends of growing
urbanization, technology, and
depersonalization continue to make us
ask the basic questions of life, death, and
meaning to life. My guess is that, faced
with a pessimistic future, more students
will turn to religion -whatever its
form -for the answers they need to
understand themselves and their
relationship to the world around them.
My guess is also that Christianity will
continue to survive and grow because of
the answers it provides. The true strengh
of Christianity is not an institution, but
the power of the Gospel message.
This, at least, is my guess.