6 The Daily Tar Heel Tuesday. April 4. 1978
Lou Bh.ionis
Editor
Chuck Alston, Managing Editor
Betsy Flagler, Associate Editor
Don Woodard, Associate Editor
Bernie Ransbottom. University Editor
Mary Anne Rhyne, Ci'y r
David Stacks, Stale and National Editor
Jaci Hughes, News Editor
Leslie Scism, Features Editor
Mark Scandling, Arts Editor
Lee Pace, Sports Editor
Allen Jernigan, Photography Editor
A bad business, a bad bank
A good business makes sure that it spends money as it is planned to be spent. A
good bank takes steps to guarantee its loans will be repaid. A good government
should do both. I- "
The Campus Governing Council doesn't qualify as a sound business, bank or
government if the recent snafu' -oVer Black Student Movement funds is any
indication.
The council approved a risky foan'to BSM w hich many council members feared
could not be repaid. And the council failed to monitor the spending of BSM and
every other campus organization receiv ing student fees in lieu of dropping its
oversight responsibilities on the student body treasurer and the Student Activities
Fund Office. And the CGC failed to ensure an accurate budget of the year's
expenses, thereby opening up the need for additional appropriations in the form ol
a loan.
While there are many examples that point toCGC's oftentimes inept handling ol
money matters, such as the continued support of a Student Graphics destined to
crumble, the controversy this past week over BSM funds serves as an excellent case
in point.
The CGC granted a $10,000 loan to BSM last fall, only six months alter BSM
members fought tooth-and-nail to get their desired appropriation. The BSM felt it
needed more money than it originally planned to finance its 10th anniversary
celebration and the CGC agreed to help.
The irony, though, is that many CGC members, as well as Finance Committee
Chairperson Phil Searcy and Student Body Treasurer Todd Albert, recognized the
loan might not be repaid. The BSM, it was noted, was low on funds and would find
it difficult to honor a $10,000 debt, just as any organization surviving on student
fees would.
But the loan was approved nevertheless, which raises an important question. Did
the CGC really believe the loan was a loan, or did it treat the $10,000 as an extra
appropriation? Either way, the council's business sense remains dubious.
Appropriations are meant to be issued at the budget hearings, when every
organization seeks it rightful piece of the pie. And loans are meant to be granted
only when they stand a reasonable chance of repayment.
An additional observation that has arisen with the affair is the lack of ellective
CGC control over the spending of student monies. The council has no idea whether
the funds are spent for the purported activities, yet it budgets the funds in May with
specific goals and projects in mind. Certainly, the Finance Committee, the treasurer
and SAFO monitor the flow of funds, but CGC must also play its part.
New members now comprise CGC and should not be blamed for the errors of
past administrations. But they may learn valuable lessons from their predecessors.
If they are to conduct themselves as an effective business, they must budget the
year's funds fairly and accurately and must monitor the expenses to ensure that
organizations are honoring their budgets. If the CGC is to perform as a professional
bank, it will take Todd Albert's advice: "I just hope one of these days CGC w ill learn
never to give loans."
The budget hearings begin soon. Dozens of organizations will seek money. I he
new CGC would do well to provide for a more professional and responsible budget
that will avoid recurring indiscretions.
Contact with Russian proletarians
UNC graduate goes to
By ROBERT JASINKIEWICZ
Marxist theory states that
Communism is the final stage of an
economic and social revolution. The
Soviet government claims that the
revolution has been won, and that ,jt is
there merely to help the people reap the
benefits, even if it takes forever. From
what I've seen of the society, the people
are in it for the duration.
You get the official version of life in
the Soviet Union soon after arriving. It
hangs like cheap veneer on an expensive
antique. If you're lucky, or unlucky
depending on your point of view, you
quickly receive an invitation to visit the
House of Friendship in Moscow for
what you think will be an informal and
productive discussion on Russian life.
Instead, you find a woman, introduced
as an editor of Soviet Life (a magazine
distributed in America by reciprocal
agreement with the Soviet government),
a male economics professor who is very
familiar with his subject, and another
man whose name you don't remember
but who will sit through the discussion
as if to monitor what the other two are
saying.
You will learn that officially the
perfect society has not yet been
achieved, but that generally the "good
life" has been brought to the masses.
Later you realize that the "good life is
measured in minimum benefits such' as
food, shelter and clothing, for
maximum numbers. You also learh that'
no persecution is allowed in the Soviet
Union, except for anti-Soviet behavior
which includes anything from criticizing
the government to juvenile delinquency.
Then you realize that nothing .fruitful
will come from bantering with official
versions of Soviet society, and you
decide to substitute the streets for
classroom experience.
Travel restrictions on visits to the
Soviet Union have eased lately,
particularly for Americans. Nixon, the
Chinese threat, and the necessity for
hard currency have seen to such
freedom of movement. (Later you learn
that during Nixon's visit the police were
detaining any Russians along the
President's route who were dressed in
Western-style clothing. They contrasted
too sharply with the masses.) In any
case, the freedom to roan the streets at
will is yours, from a distance, the events
and people you remember flood back in
rv orderly succession.
Sathj
(Jar HM
86th year of editorial freedom
You remember confronting one of the
first realities of Soviet life in the
Moscow air terminal on your arrival:
the Red Army mans the embarkation
and debarkation poirSts. While waiting
for transportation, the announcement is
made of a domestic flight to Irkutsk,
and a detachment of soldiers gets up to
leave. Irkutsk is near the Chinese
border... a reality of Soviet life. You
remember how, on the road into
Moscow, your guide pointed out a
monument marking the farthest
German advance in World War II. Later
you find other monuments just like it
and scores of eternal flames in memory
of the war dead... another reality ol
Soviet life.
Russia has over 200 million people.
Very few of those are middle-aged men.
Very many of them are middle-aged
widows. They sweep sidewalks, shovel
snow, repair railroad tracks, guard
museums and art galleries, and, until
recently, they took care of the orphans.
The Russian people are the paradox
and enigma of Soviet life. From a hotel
window you see them filtering onto the
streets early in the morning like
automatons. Close up in the crowds,
you see them with the same type of
preoccupation you first noticed among
a group of Russians on the flight into the
country. On a streetcar, you watch a
mother playfully fondling her red
cheeked baby bundled so heavily
against the cold that you can scarcely
tell its sex. Children seem to be a
national treasure, but you wonder
whether they too will function as
machines.
Even as the chatter throws a slight
glow around the unheated car, you
wonder what, if anything, the people are
thinking. Conversation, when available,
is often light or mechanical. The streets
of a Leningrad, Novgorod or Moscow
lack the sometimes easy and cheerful
banter of Western cities. Always the
people seem absorbed in something: the
long waits in line for food in the stores,
perhaps, or the food shortages of last
year.
Or maybe it's the past and present.
The future, according to the
government, is now . And then you begin
to understand the perpetual
preoccupation; without the future there
i cully isn't much to think about
You also begin to realize that the
past n.ts KiKen a Heavy toll on the
present. Vodka, cheap and easily
letters to the editor
Jogger cites problems with Finley course
I o the editor:
The Friday W eekender announced a
new jogging course circling the back
nine at Finley Golf Course. The
announced course begins on the golf
course road and immediately plunges
into an impassable swamp. Alter about
75 yards, it turns right and collides with
a formidable trash heap. By this time the
prospective jogger knows just how
much of a "jogging course" has been
provided for him.
It is true that the number of joggers
(and runners) is increasing, and it is
regrettable that occasionally golfers are
distracted by runners at Finley. For
these reasons, the University owes both
groups a running course which is
acceptable to the golfers and the
runners, as represented by
organizations such as the Carolina
Godiva Track Club and the varsity
cross-country team. Until a reasonable
alternative is provided, the no-jogging
rule at Finley will probably be
uneniorcable.
Roland Rust
305 Old Carroll
Soviet Union for lesson
available to foreigners, is taxed out ol
existence lor most Russians.
Alcoholism is a national problem.
Youths, having aged quickly, roam
the streets of Moscow and Leningrad
hustling for chewing gum and blue
jeans; they make up perhaps the largest
part of the black market. Mostly they
roam, without a past and a future.
Juvenile delinquency is a national
problem.
You realize the scarcity of consumer
goods when passing a shop window in
Leningrad: an ancient Singer sewing
machine sells for as much as $100, and it
is still selling. Dull, drab apartment
buildings rise at the fringes of the cities
like ugly malignant growths, and they
are already overcrowded. The lack ol
living comforts is a national problem.
Unemployment is not a problem.
Everyone, according to the Soviet
Constitution, has the right and duty to
work. But to change jobs or careers, you
need the government's permission.
Productivity is a national problem.
On an official level, the government
talks about social harmony and
economic progress. You only begin to
understand the importance of the word
"permission" while standing in line to
apply for a library card at the mammoth
Lenin Library in Moscow. The Russians
ahead of vou, if they're from outside the
city, have to show their passports
stamped on their arrival from the
countryside. Russians need passports
(and you assume permission) to travel
within their own country. Lack of
personal freedom is also a national
problem.
Then you begin to realize that
perhaps this last problem is the cause of
all the others.
The works of George Orwell are
banned from the Soviet Union. That's a
good idea from the government's view.
Animal Farm and I9H4 hit too close to
home.
After having seen "Swan Lake" at the
Kremlin's Palace of Congresses or " I he
Nutcracker" at the Bolshoi Theater, you
meet foreigners and the government and
Party elite.
Next you go to a Moscow movie
house to see "Jane I vie" (dubbed in
Russian, made in Lnglaiui) and meet t he
proletarians: truck driveis, stevedores
and factor v woikeis. I icketstoi t he List
tw o seats ai e sold to on b a man on the
outside, at com , on ii-.ilie that social
ECKANKAR
To the editor:
Several letters written in response to
the DTH article on ECKANKAR
("Group advocates soul travel." March
30) make it clear that it is indeed difficult
to convey the perspective of
ECKANKAR second hand through an
interview report. I wish to clarify several
points reported in the article.
ECKANKAR is not a religion in the
tj
HEW IT!"
sense of an organized method ol
worship. It is simply a way for an
individual to find his own answers to
questions about his existence.
ECKANKAR serves as a reminder that
man has within himself all the tools
necessary to realize his true spiritual
identity. And he can accomplish this
before dying through soul travel.
Soul travel is exercising the freedom
man has. to choose his state of
consciousness. It is a natural process by
which he discovers there is more to life
than what appears to the five senses.
Learning to experience the realities
available to the inner spiritual senses, an
equality still remains a revolutionary
ideal.
It's not difficult to meet Russians if
you're willing to take to the streets. In
Leningrad, you meet a Georgian
engineer and ride back to his apartment
for an evening of conversation about
everything that has happened on the
outside since the last time he was able to
talk with visitors. Life is hard, he says,
but especially so for skilled workers.
At 2 a.m., he decides to walk you back
the two miles to your hotel. You talk as
you stroll along the streets. An
occasional KGB (state police) jeep
passes by but doesn't stop. The Neva
River, unfrozen in January for the first
time in a century, gently splashes along
miles of stone walls and quays as you
pass through Revolution Square in the
darkness. Later he'll walk back to his
apartment, alone.
In Moscow you meet the Jewish
problem for the first time. Out of
curiosity you go to one of the last
functioning synagogues in Russia and
find only the very old inside. You learn
later that anyone under fifty v ho shows
up at a service is subject to arrest.
An old man next to you lends you his
piaverbook. and w ith dignity you try to
look .is if on understand the w ords.On
individual can more readily express the
creative harmony inherent in spirit
(ECK) in his daily life. The individual
wishing to find that thread which unites
the scattered pieces of his insights into
his purpose in life may wish to explore
the ancient teachings of ECKANKAR.
His experience will be his alone, for
truth is for each of us to discover within
our own consciousness.
I'm sure many students and others in
the campus community have been
wondering just what ECKANKAR is,
and the DTH has done la service by
letting them know of the local gfyu and
how they may find more information on
tLNA.Ms.AK.
4
Mark D. Weber
ECKANKAR. UNC Faculty Advisor
To the editor:
1 would like to offer another
perspective on ECKANKAR for those
who are interested. Many people find
themselves asking questions such as,
"Why am I living in this world?" or
in Russian
your other side are two youths, who,
risking arrest, tell you they're trying to
leave for Israel. It will cost them about
$4,000, plus permission to leave the
country. They're unemployed because
the government says they lost their right
to work.
Upstairs, you meet an old woman.
She tells you she lost almost her whole
family in the war... killed by Germans,
and Russians. She then says she spent
time in Siberia. For her, leaving is
meaningless. She asks for chewing gum.
Then you walk back through Red
Square, and the wind blows colder than
it has ever blown before.
Later you meet a Soviet Jew in his
apartment on the outskirts of Moscow.
He tells you he was an aeronautical
engineer five years ago. Then he asked
for permission to leave. Now he's an
unemployed artist who has had
exhibitions in Jerusalem. His paintings
were smuggled out.
He also tells you his apartment is
bugged and so is your hotel room,
probably. You were also followed, he
adds. In your disbelief you begin to
believe it. Paranoia is a national
problem.
You also remember, and can nevei
ioiget. Red N..!u. lie. Mere, Soviet
"Where will 1 go after this lifetime?"
ECKANKAR provides a method of
finding answers to these questions. To
put it another way, we have many goals
in life that mot ivate us from one point to
the next, but what is the overall goal that
has carried us into this life and will
eventually take us beyond it?
Instead of reading the answers in a
book or reaching an agreement with
everyone else, the ECKist seeks to
experience this larger viewpoint for
himself. This is where soul travel enters
the picture. ECKANKAR teaches that
it is possible for the individual to
become aware of the greater reality
while still living in the physical body. He
then begins to recognize himself as a
spiritual being and see that all life is only
ECK (spirit) working within each soul
as it awakens to a greater awareness of
God. Thus one can actively participate
in his own unfoldment and gain a
greater understanding of what is going
on around and within himself.
Paul Gailey
Route 4, Box 423A
Thanks from ZBT
To the editor:
The brothers of Zeta Beta Tau
fraternity would like to take this
opportunity to publicly thank the
University community for making the
Eighth Annual ZBT Mile of Pennies a
definite success. With your help,
approximately $1700 was raised
Saturday for the APO Campus Chest,
funds that will directly help you by
staying in the Chapel Hill area. Special
thanks also go to the Daily Tar Heel and
editor Lou Bilionis for the excellent
coverage they provided which enabled
us for the first time to exceed the two
mile mark in contributions.
With such continued support from
the media, students and faculty, we feel
the Mile of Pennies will continue to
become one of Chapel Hill's finest
traditions. Once again, thanks to all for
digging deep and putting in your two
cents' worth. Start filling up those piggy
banks for next year.
Barry W. Burt
Chairman
ZBT's Eighth Annual Mile of Pennies
'good life'
officiality smothers the individual like
swamp f og. I n the center, in the chill and
stillness, stands Lenin's Mausoleum,
constantly surrounded by the curious
and the faithful. Immediately behind it
rises a white statue of Stalin, like a
resurrected ghost waiting to return
home.
Later, you realize the holiness
attached to Lenin's name and tomb. On
a freezing morning you will stand in line
for an hour waiting to enter. Inside you
will pass in twos by the body: no
cameras, no loitering, no smiling, no
hands in pockets, no packages, and no
disrespect allowed. For the first time
you feel the full and awesome weight of
the Communist Party.
Then you remember how in
Leningrad you strolled along the rivers
at dusk and old men would meet you
and tell you about their relatives in
Chicago. And how young lovers would
pass by in the lowering darkness.
And then you realize that the theory is
wrong. No one has written the final
chapter to the human story.
Robert Jasinkiewicz, who visited the
Soviet Union in 1974 as a UNC graduate
student, is composition supervisor for
the A; ,Y Tar Heel
i