Robert N. Putnam II
it
Scttlg
5!ar iSttl
. Reorganisation
needed, for
Most students would agree that
Student Government needs
improvement. Such controversy as
there is revolves on how to change
the organization to improve it.
Currently there are two
proposals for changing Student
Government's structure with an eye
to greater efficienty and service to
the students.
The first plan to be revealed this
fall was put forward by Student
Body President Richard Epps. This
plan calls for the abolishment of
the present Student Legislature and
the putting in its place of a 20-man
Campus Governing Council that
would have virtually the same
functions.
This plan is similar to the one
proposed last spring but the Epps
plan . provides for a two year trial
period for the new structure. The
student body would be given a
chance to vote on retaining the
structure in the spring of 1975, two
years after it would be
implemented.
SL members Randy Wolfe and
Gary Rendsburg unveiled another
plan to reorganize Student
Legislature at the SL Rules
Committee meeting Monday. This
plan calls for the Student
Legislature to be reduced from its
present 55-member size to a body
of from 34 to 38 members.
It also would consolidate the
current election districts by
eliminating districts based on sex.
There would be no more SL seats
from solely male or solely female
districts under the Wolfe-Rendsburg
proposal. This plan would also
consolidate the Men's and Women's
Honor Court and make those
elections from the same districts as
the SL members.
o Amendments to the Student
Constitution, which both of these
plans entail, must be approved by
ibe Hill
Killings
This past week has been for me a
period of self-examination. As an
American Jew and an international
socialist, I faced the latest episode of the
Middle East Crisis with many misgivings. I
waslapalled at the terrorism at Munich
and dismayed once again that the world
was fed propaganda instead of presented
with an open appraisal of the issues.
Zionists and anticommunists claimed that
the Black September organization
represented both an endemic Arab .
genocidal fanaticism and criminal
forebodings to the "free world." The case
for an exclusive Jewish state and for U.S.
support of Israel was nurtured by crude
" emotionalism. Both Nixon and McGovern
tried to best each other in backing Israel
and condemning the Palestinian guerillas.
The media echoed these superficial
political ploys by emphasizing the
conspiratorial, clandestine and sanguine
nature of the Palestinian guerillas. There
was no attempt to explain why people
would take such desperate measures as
kidnapping and killing with little regard
for their own personal safety. There was
scant discussion of the political,
economic and social problems that have
plagued the Middle East, degraded the
lives, of the Palestinians, and reinforced
the militarism in both Israel and the Arab
world.
Yes, there was a tragedy at Munich.
Eleven people were killed because they
were Israeli Jews. Yet a larger tragedy
continues to assert itself. The legitimate
aspirations of the Palestinians for a just
resolution of the displacement and
atomization that followed the
establishment of the state of Israel have
been clouded by terrorism.
Opinion
Evans Witt, Editor
Thursday, September 14, 1972
the students. One method is for SL
to approve the amendment,
whereupon the amendments only
require a majority student vote.
The other is for the required
number of signatures to be gathered
to place the amendment on the
ballot, which then needs a
two-thirds vote for approval.
The Wolfe-Rendsburg plan
comes up for approval by the
Student Legislature tonight, while
the Epps plan will be placed on the
ballot through student petitions. If
the Wolfe-Rendsburg plan wins
approval for a student vote and the
Epps plan is' placed on the October
17 ballot by petition, confusion
and the probably ultimate defeat of
both plans would be the result.
We have not had sufficient time
to consider the import of either of
these plans of reorganization in as
great detail as we would like. And
we do not believe that the time is
right for the Student Legislature to
decide whether the
Wolfe-Rendsburg plan will be on
the ballot. If it is possible under the
current elections law, it would be
advisable to put off the SL vote on
the Wolfe-Rendsburg plan until its
merits can be compared more fully
against those of the Epps plan.
Since the plan was only unveiled
this past Monday, ' could not the
legislators be given until at least
next week to consider both plans
and to find out what some of their
constituents think about the plans?
On one j)oint, we do not think
that there is significant
disagreement Student
Government needs improvement.
For many, a change in structure
would seem to be the most
auspicious beginning for a change in
the quality of Student Government.
The time is right for a change in
SG, although the method has yet to
be decided.
obscure
Terrorism is a political strategy based
on acts of violence against individuals
either to materially hurt the enemy as in
the case of assassination of public fugures
or to demoralize the spirit as in case of
attacking a marketplace or a school. In
the terrorist's mind there exists a
Manichean world which pits the mopally
pure against a one-dimensional enemy. It
ignores the humanity of people whereby
bonds of cooperation and comradery can
be established and instead substitutes the
action of a select few who by virtue of
knowledge or intense committment will
decide the course of political struggle.
. Concretely this means that Israeli,
workers and farmers are driven into arms
of a leadership which has
uncompromisingly maintained hegemony
over Palestinians. There can be no serious
appreciation of the case for either a
binational state of Jews and Palestinian
Arabs or simply a separate nation for a
refugee people within a climate of mutual
terror where murder is met by murder
and reprisal by retaliation.
But what is more disturbing is that a
familar pattern is reemerging which can
lead to nothing but incessant hostility.
Both Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs
have been presently captured by
nationalist ideologies which have
.precluded political cooperation, social
cohabitation and cultural pluralism. Both
movements have claimed the same
territory as their homeland in which the
diaspora would become just a memory.
Jews who faced oppression in Europe and
Palestinians who experienced second class
citizenship throughout the Middle East
both embraced Palestine or Israel
McGovern strategy ineffective
Pity the junior Senator from South
Dakota. Running for President of the
United States is never an easy thing to do,
but it must be particularly lonely for
George McGovern, with his present
difficulties.
After four months of a
phenomenally successful primary
campaign culminating in his first-ballot
nomination at the Democratic
Convention, McGovern seems well on his
way to four quite different months of
repeated blundering which might well
result in electoral disaster for his party.
Very few things have gone right for
George since the convention, and the near
future does not hold much hope unless he
makes some drastic changes.
In my column last week, I pointed
out McGovern's damaged credibility as a
result of his dumping of Eagleton as his
running-mate and his complete about-face
within the course of several hours on
whether he sent Pierre Salinger to Paris to
meet with the North Vietnamese. Those
supporters who had been convinced of
George's honesty and sincerity must have
felt distinctly uncomfortable as a result
of their candidate's behavior.
The campaign itself has not been going
at all well, either. A week or two ago
Larry O'Brian, McGovern's campaign
Les Wagoner
Student
Classes have started, committees are
functioning, vacancies have been filled on
existing commissions, dorm and residence
college politics are in full swing. Every
thing seems to be back to normal. Every
thing that is, except the placidity usually
found in reference to national and state
politics.
Checking the study rooms at night one
hears McGovern . . . Nixon; Helms . : .
Galifianakis; Bowles Holshouser, etc.
Sitting in the rooms of dorm students,
one hears the same names, with only slight
variations, tossed back and forth. The plat
-Y 6UT nob TjarrrY
x?ort
a larger tragedy
pre-1 948 as their haven.
It should be remembered that not
until 1942 did the World Zionist Congress
adopt in its program the demand for a
separate Jewish state. Until that time
serious consideration was given to a
binational state where full recognition of
the rights of each respective nationality
would be granted. In 1944 a Palestinian
Arab socialist party called Histadruth
(Left Front) captured 20 percent of the
vote running on a binationalist platform.
In addition, as late as 1946 a
non-exclusive Palestinian state was
considered a viable solution by the
League for Arab-Jewish rapprochement
and the Falastin al Judida (New
Palestine), two organizations with
substantial followings. This cooperative
spirit was also manifested in joint strikes
of cement and transportation workers in
1947 and participation in the same
political parties such as the Worker Party,
whose leader Sami Tahan in conjunction
with Chaim Weisman, a leading Zionist,
supported a binational state. Tahan,
however, paid the price of assassination at
the hands of Arabs adamantly opposed to
such a modus vivendi. ..,
The vision of an egalitarian l and
pluralist Palestine was also dashed by
single-minded Zionists, a self-interested
Jordanian government and the Western
world who found an easy way out of the
moral crisis of Hitler's Germany The
Israeli law instituted in 1948 which! held
that any Arab who left his land after
November 27, 1947, lost all rights of
ownership even if he returned before May
15, 1948, the date of Israeli
independence, was one of a series of
events leading to the estrangement of the
manager, was threatening to quit because
of George's apparent inability to organize
his staff (running a Presidential campaign
with the committee system for making
decisions just doesn't work).
And then there have been problems
with Sargent Shriver, Tom Eagleton s
replacement as vice-presidential
candidate. Sargent has never run for
elective office in his life not even for
president of his local school board. He
tries to make up for this with enthusiasm,
but it has been necessary for George to
recall him every few days for rudimentary
instruction on what not to say. Sargent's
enthusiasm for talking, coupled with his
relative ignorance of the ideology of
McGovern's New Left positions, has
resulted in several inconsistencies with
which George was far from pleased.
"Smile and waffle" were McGovern's
instructions to Shriver for handling
difficult questions in news conferences. It
seems George thinks that if you smile
broadly at the TV camera an inadequate
answer won't seem nearly so bad. (A fact
which you might want to remember the
next time you see McGovern smiling
broadly.)
And there have been still other
difficulties with the campaign. With all
volte can
forms of the national candidates are not so
much in question or debate as are the per
sonalities and past-performances of the
two. The same holds true for the other
offices, by and large. One would thinkwe
were running a national personality con
test (?) instead of a serious election judging
from what is heard.
Comparisons of Jack Kennedy, Dwight
Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Lyndon
Johnson, and George McGovern are made
and hassled constantly. Dates, names, de--cisions
all are tossed around like an aca
demic study-commission report.
But, man, that's not where it is! i hese
Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews.
The terrorism of Haganah, a
popular-based commando group and
Irgun, a right wing guerilla organization
that was responsible for the massacre of
Palestinians hostile to the invading Arab
armies at Deir Yassin drove many
Palestinians towards a position
compatible with Pan-Arab chauvinism.
The partition of Palestine into Israel and
Trans Jordan supported by the U.N.
sealed the fate of 900,000 Palestinian
refugees who faced a squalid existence on
the impoverished West Bank.
It appeared that the same countries,
including the U.S., who refused to open
its doors to Jews fleeing Nazi facism
opted for a solution predicated on
subordinating a relatively weak people
who played no role in the European
genocidal madness. And the European
Jews who were told that Israel was
supposedly established in their honor
found themselves fulfilling the dreams of
Theodore Herzl, Moses Hess and Vladmir
Ze'ev Jabotinsky by colonizing a land
where both Palestinian Jew and Arab had
tried, although, at times, unsuccessfully
to live together. -
Jews had gained a nation but only by
denying the same claim of nationhood by
another oppressed people. This tragedy
haunts us now and will continue to
render us uneasy until we admit , to
ourselves and the Palestinians that : we
have wronged as well as been wronged.
The embracing of self serving myths and
the issuing of sanctimonious denials of
responsibility will only deepen the tragic
state of affairs between Israeli Jews and
Palestinian Arabs. -
the emphasis McGovern's strategists have
placed on voter registration, it seems
unfortunate that the man in charge of
this vital area suddenly remembered that
he had to get re-elected himself back in
Trenton, New Jersey, and bid McGovern
an affectionate farewell.
George also has a real problem in what
positions to take on the issues. He
realized shortly before the convention
that his views were a good distance to the
left of the typical American voter and has
been moving to the right since that time
in an attempt to become a viable
candidate. In politics, it is hardly unusual
for a .candidate to move toward the
center -. that's how you get elected
(Barry Goldwater's refusal tb compromise
his honestly-held but right-of-center views
is the main reason he was beaten so
soundly by Lyndon Johnson, the more
astute politician). George's special
problem is that his hard core of support
comes from the New Left, and this is a
group not apt to view his rightward shift
with much tolerance or enthusiasm.
McGovern has apparently decided that
the solution to this dilemna is to remain
firm in his position on a Vietnam
withdrawal, especially since the New Left
is probably the only group in the country
not yet completely bored with the war as
influence
aren't names to be tossed around, these
aren't personalities to be identified with.
These are people, and what they do in the
next four years is going fo determine what
kind of country we have to live in.
Do we want to continue to exist under
the prevailing socio-economic conditions
that have come about under the present
administration? Do we want to continue
listening to the weekly death toll of Ameri
cans in Indo-China or hearing of how many
thousand tons of bombs are dropped in
North Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc., or
do we want to hear of a complete end to
the war that is not a war?
Do we want to continue to have wage
and price controls or do we want a return
to a workable situation which is dependant
upon individual and voluntary control as
opposed to big-brother tactics?
Watergate, the removal of campaign
funds from proper channels, etc. are indi
cative of what is happening now. Can't we
get off this merry-go-round long enough to
get down to brass tacks and stop this
mickey-mouse foolishness?
There is a way that we, students of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Mill, insignificant creatures that we at
times may be, can do something about
these matters. We can get-the-hell out and
register to vote and after that, campaign
for the issues we believe in, including the
voting on election day for the candidate
who we believe will come closest to carry
ing out our wishes.
We, as well as the students across the
country, can be more than just a bloc-vote
statistic. We can be a dynamic influence on
local, state and national politics. But we
have to do it from the stance of voting and
actively participating in the campaigns of
those we believe in.
Realizing that I am sticking my neck
out about a mile and a half, I agree with
Ijrlaiiu,
Evans Witt,
79 Years
of
Editorial Freedom
The Dry Tar Heei strives to provide meaningful new, interpretations and opinions
on ils editorial page. Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the editor, while letters and
columns represent only the nfws of individual contributors.
an issue, after eight years of political
rhetoric. A movie actress or a former
attorney general going to Hanoi every
once in a while to see a bomb crater in a
dike helps maintain enthusiasm, too.
Thus with the New Left hopefully
anchored to the Vietnam issue, George is
left free to move toward the center in
other areas. Abortion reform is suddenly
a matter for the states to decide for
themselves. Leniency with regard to
marijuana is somehow mentioned less
frequently than before. More moderate
plans for welfare reform evolve. Israel
must receive as much military aid as she
requires. And so forth.
It is possible, of course, for such a
stretegy to work. Indications at this point
seem to be that it is not working, as
reflected most significantly by the latest
Gallup Poll, which shows 61 percent of
those people under 30 surveyed currently
supporting Richard Nixon, with 36
percent in favor of George McGovern.
The previous poll had indicated a slight
lead (48 to 41) for McGovern. While it is
possible that one of the polls could be
more accurate than the other, it is
difficult to ignore the direction of the
trend. And if George is beginning to lose
the support of the young, he is indeed in
deep trouble, for he has gone to great
pains to convince everyone that he is the
candidate of those under 30.
What is happening is that people who
once had supported George more or less
on faith are beginning to look at him
more critically in view of the recent
challenges to his credibility. They are
looking at his rapid changes of stance on
the issues and they are beginning to
wonder.
The ineffectiveness of McGovern's
strategies is brought out all the more
clearly by the fact that the Republicans
have done very little in the way of active
campaigning as of yet, and still Nixon's
lead continues to grow. It cannot be that
Nixon is doing the right things (other
than going soberly about the business of
being President as though there were no
ekotion this year), but it must be that
George McGovern ... is repelling more
people Jhan he is winning.
In light of his conduct of the campaign
since the convention, this is not
surprising. If George wants the election to
resemble any kind of an even contest, he
had best rethink his strategies, figure out
what his positons are then stick to them,
and find some real issues to campaign on.
He has less than eight weeks left.
elections
Gerry Cohen's stance on voting. I agree
because I have seen the results of what we
have had for the past four years. I have
lived under the administrations of six presi
dents and have watched them as one would
an interesting species of animal, and have
made a few value-judgements by generaliz
ing party-wise. From these judgements, I
conclusively, advocate the election of
George McGovern, just as I did that of
John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.
I keep hearing it said that we can't do
anything on a local level to influence
national policy and politics. This is wrong.
It is dead wrong. All it takes is for us as
students to be involved in these campaigns,
to be involved to the point that we are not
only willing to register to vote, and then
voting, but to the extent that we are willing
to familiarize ourselves with the past per
formances of the candidates and their
stances on matters that are pertinent to us,
to all of us. Then, get out and campaign
actively for these men. Campaign not only
up to the date of the elections but even
after the elections, so that we are constant
ly keeping in front of our representatives
the goals and ideals for which we are fight
ing. Letters to our congressmen, our sena
tors, state-level politicains and even the
president, are but one method of accom
plishing this. Don't let the issues die after
election day, but keep them alive and act
ive from this end by a steady flow of com
munications to the people.
In less than two months, we go to the
polls once again to try to accomplish "gov
ernment of the people, by the people and
for the people." Let's try a little harder this
time. Let's not only go to the poh.5, but
let's keep active after the campaigns are
over and the election results are in.
In this way, perhaps each will be able to
say, "I have done my part."
afar Steel
Editor
Norman Black, Managing Editor
Jessica Hanchar. News Editor
Howie Carr, Associate Editor
Lynn Lloyd, Associate Editor
David'Zucchino. Sports Editor
Bruce Mann. Feature Editor