Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 22, 1982, edition 1 / Page 8
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8The Daily Tar HeelMonday. February 22. iPft? hp lailii OJar Mni Who's the real winner? I ahlp Franklin Street nffire. "He w vftr o editorial freedom John Drlscher. By DRESCHER Ann Peters. Afjmm.i; Editor Kerry DERtxr.HiMvwft-EJmf Rachel Perry. Vnm-nity Editor Alan Ch apple. c.uy Editor J I M W R I N N . 5 mi,- and Natimul Editor Linda Robertson, sm Editor AL STEELE, Photography Editor KEN MlNGISMiww( L:ifir Elaine McClatchey. . Editor Lynn Peithman, eJiw Susan Hudson. F-.imrw EJwr NlSSEN RlTTER. Arts Editor Teresa Curry. EJ,.r Serving tradition "77iis new venture is necessarily entered upon by the present board with no little trepidation, nevertheless with a determination to make a success which can only be done through the indulgence and assistance of our faculty and fellow students." The Tar Heel, Feb. 23, 1893 In 1941 a North Carolina mountain boy from Hickory ran for Daily Tar Heel editor against a slick, fast-talking city boy from New Haven, Conn. It was a heated, vig orous campaign, notable because of the closeness of the election. In the end, after two re-counts, the home-state boy was declared the winner. The victor went on to be editor and publisher of a small-town North Carolina newspaper. The loser, mean while, achieved nationwide prominence, and became one of UNC's most famous alumni. The winner was Orville Campbell, now 61 years old, editor and publisher of The Chapel Hill Newspaper. The loser was Lou Harris, creator of the nationally known Harris poll and former columnist for Newsweek and The Washington Post. It wasn't the first time, nor the last, that the loser of a UNC election went on to achieve a degree of success rarely matched by his fellow graduates. Are the painful lessons learned in losing an election an asset to a career? Or is it that students simply haven't always been a good judge of talent? "Lou Harris was twice as smart as I was," said Orville Campbell, leaning back in a large chair in his comfort- None of the six young men who produced that first issue of The Tar Heel 89 years ago could have dared to dream that their creation would be alive nearly a century later. But as the paper grows older, it paradoxically be comes younger too. While this week marks another anniversary for The Daily Tar Heel, it also marks the arrival of a new and younger staff, a staff eager to contribute to this newspapers long tradition of serving the Uni versity community. It is a tradition rich in quality and a tradition that should be served. In that first issue, one of the editors wrote, "Space will be assigned for the thorough discussion of all points pertaining to the advancement and growth of the University." The DTH s objectives remain the same to inform the community and discuss the issues that affect it. Any newspaper, in cluding this one, has the obligation to question, to ask established institu tions why, to challenge with facts and to offer new perspectives and solu tions. Much of the DTHs long tradition of quality can be attributed to its ful fillment of its role as both the informer and the questioner. Wolfe, Kuralt, Wicker: these names are part of that tradition. But there is danger in tradition too. There is a danger of becoming jaded by history, complacent with past successes, unable to question ourselves and those around us. The ghosts of the past can serve as inspiration but they will no longer produce The Daily Tar Heel. It is up to the present staff to challenge set ways of thinking here at the DTH, on campus and outside Chapel Hill. The ghosts before us were great because, when needed, they dared to be different. This paper would not be true to its history if it did not do the same. The names on the above masthead are not the only thing that is different about it. The masthead itself has been restructured and includes a new po sition, Projects Editor. That change was made to bring the paper more in depth stories on campus issues and organizations. There are other struc tural changes in the paper today and more that will arrive as the week passes. They are all intended to provide readers with more of the news and features they want. Of course, much of the paper will remain the same, as it should. We be lieve the paper has been successful in the past year. Many thanks go to Jim Hummel and the previous staff for their help not only in the transition but also for their guidance and support in the past 12 months. As part of the family, they have served the tradition admirably and remain a source of in spiration for those of us touched by their knowledge and friendship. On the paper's birthday in 1961, Editor Jonathan Yardley wrote a "Love Letter to a Newspaper." "You laugh at the ages and cry with man kind; with a crocodile tear you watch the passage of time and man, know ing that there is a kind of permanence in your blustering bravado that no man can achieve," wrote Yardley. "For all your rare delights we serve you. For all your pains we bless you. Live long and live well. Protest when you must, laugh when you will; praise when praise is due, damn when damnation is required. But never lose your grace, dignity, charm or, most of all, that mysterious appeal that holds those who make you what you . w V OTHScoH Sharpe Orville Campbell able Franklin Street office. "He was from Connecticut and he knew a lot about world affairs, about our in volvement in the war and how it affected students. He would have made a good editor of The Daily Tar Heel." He never got the chance. In one of the closest races in campus history, Campbell initially beat Harris by 10 votes out of the 2,500 that voted. Harris demanded a re count, which showed that Campbell had only four more votes than Harris. Finally, a second re-count gave Campbell a 13 vote margin and the certification as vic tor. During the first re-count, Campbell smoked his first cigarette and then two packs more. He hasn't smoked a total of two packs in the last 40 years. It was that kind of a campaign, a campaign that, like many others, left its scars on both participants. "We were never friends or enemies," Campbell said. One of Campbell's employees recently confided that Harris didn't speak to Campbell for nearly 25 years after the election. In 1968, when Campbell was president of the North Carolina Press Association, he asked Harris if he would speak at one of the organization's meeting. Harris accepted. "Lou told the audience it took him 25 years to accept an invitation from me to do anything," Campbell said. Harris had talked of a political career during his col lege days, but the DTH election convinced him other wise. Harris was so absolutely positive he was the best candidate that he could not believe that anyone would not vote for him, Campbell said. Harris figured if he couldn't convince students he was better than Orville Campbell, he sure wasn't going to be able to convince voters in the real world of his capabilities. Harris knew he was the better candidate and Campbell basically agreed. "I was really out of my ele ment when I was editor," Campbell said. "But a lot of people had encouraged me to run." If Campbell and Harris both say Harris was the best candidate, one won ders how Campbell managed to win the election. Indeed, if seven people had voted for Harris instead of Campbell, Harris would have won and perhaps politics, not Newsweek, would have claimed him. Was it simply luck? "Luck is God in a scatterbrained and even amoral mood, with his sense of justice out of commission," said Lance Morrow. It seems, perhaps, that God's sense of justice was out of commission. But Campbell said it wasn't just luck that won him the cam paign. He had a well-organized campaign, managed by THE Big Man on Campus, basketball All-American Gorgeous George Glamack. Glamack had just smashed numerous conference scoring records and was the most recognizable student on campus. It also didn't hurt Campbell that he was perceived as a good ole North Carolina boy and Harris as the carpetbagging Yankee. Campbell, with his easy going manner and lucky smile, may have, quite simply, been a better campaigner. Politics is hot an exact science and it's difficult to say what decides elections. While both Harris and Campbell were well-qualified, salesmanship is often the key to campaigning and Orville Campbell was a good salesman. As any former candidate knows, it's often not what you say, but how you say it. Orville Campbell may have said it better. VV v ' r v ' ,'UlJkJL y ' ' ; Lu ' ' f 1 - i ; j t - , - , 4' I " " turn iiiini- mri - ii n i .I iii I Lou Harris DTHFiie photo The qualities that make a good campaigner, however, aren't always the same ones that make a winner effective once in office, especially in a race for editor of a publi cation. So why should students vote for the editor? "If Lou Harris and I had appeared before a publications committee to decide the editorship, it wouldn't even had been close," Campbell said. "He'd been elected hands down." Campbell still feels a campuswide vote is the best way to elect an editor. "Democracy substitutes elec tion by the incompetent many for the appointment by the corrupt few," wrote George Bernard Shaw. Even with its drawbacks, Campbell feels an editorial candidate should be accountable to students. That same year, in the student body presidential race a candidate named Truman Hobbs defeated Ferebee Taylor. Taylor went on to be chancellor at UNC, while Hobbs achieved relative obscurity. Certainly UNC canv paign losers don't always outshine the winners. But for every Charles Kuralt who won the DTH editorship, there's a Lou Harris who lost. For those recent campus political victors, whose heads are perhaps a bit bloated with self-indulgence, that's something to think about. John Drescher, a senior journalism and history major from Raleigh, is editor of The Daily Tar Heel. Freaks a disappearing breed are." That mysterious appeal has attracted a new group committed to pro ducing this newspaper. The torch has been passed and the new generation is anxious to serve as the generations before it have served. On this, the eve of the paper's birthday, we approach our venture in the same manner as the six young men who started the paper 89 years ago: with no little trepi dation, nevertheless with a determination to succeed. By RANDY WALKER I sure miss freaks. You remember them from high school the cigarette-smoking troublemakers who skipped class, threw stuff out bus windows, got high during lunch and gen erally caused headaches for the admini-. stration. Every school had them; at mine, we called them freaks. In junior high, you were a jock, a freak, or a nobody. The highlight of my seventh grade year was the great rumble between the jocks and the freaks. The leader of the freaks, an army booted rebel named Chip, threw a Twinkie at a jock during first lunch. This blow to Jock's honor could not be tole rated. "Meet us on the bus ramp at se cond lunch," challenged the jocks. Minutes later, everybody was running to the bus ramp. While excited nobodies looked on, jocks and freaks tensed to fight, waiting for the second lunch bell. The bell rang and a few bottles were thrown; later a couple freaks got sus pended. Otherwise the rumble was a big fizzle for us nobodies who wanted to see a full-scale riot. The center of freak life was the smok ing area behind the school called the bull pen. The administration marked it off with yellow lines. If you smoked a ciga rette on the wrong side of the line, it was automatic detention. Denim jackets and T-shirts were stylish in the bullpen. You were at the height of fashion if you had long hair, an army jacket, patched jeans and army boots. One hard-core freak named Mark seem ingly had more patch than denim in his Levi's. Mark was a god in the hierarchy of the bullpen, not only for his jeans, but for supposedly having hitchhiked to 48 states. You would often see freaks sitting on a bench in the bullpen, smoking Marlboro cigarettes and playing cheap acoustic guitars. If you could play "Stairway to Heaven" you had special status. Every self-respecting freak musician played it. In spring, groups of freaks collected on the grassy slope next to the school to play "Stairway to Heaven." They picked the introduction in out-of-tune unison, and when, they got to the lead, they would all play that too. When it was over, they did it again. That must have been pretty moving, but the ultimate freak experience was lis tening to "Stairway" on headphones while taking bong hits, preferably in a room with black light and Led Zeppelin posters. Zeppelin was the universal freak band, the group's guitarist Jimmy Page every freak's hero. As the jocks got older, they too dis covered marijuana. Many jocks bought dope from freaks, who were old hands at the drug trade. As the business relation ship developed into friendship, jock and freak started socializing and getting high together. , Another development helped blur the line between the two the phenomenon of the athletic freak. Take the case of Clyde (not his real name). In junior high, Clyde had been a classic freak; he got high all the time, failed all his classes and got called up to the office every morning. He was always getting suspended. The future did not look bright for young Clyde. Then the coaches found out Clyde could play football. He played so well he made all-Metro. He was the team's star running back. But Clyde could not play football if he was suspended or on academic probation. So it was arranged tht the administration would overlook Clyde's little offenses, and teachers would find reasons to pass Clyde. Freaks were always academic disasters. Some were "emotionally disturbed" and had "learning -disabilities," to use the educational jargon. Others were just plain stupid. Whatever the reason, many a freak was on the "five-year-plan," as we called it. Bad behavior went hand-in-hand with academic foul-ups. Every morning Mr. Morris, an assistant principal, came on the public address system and said, "Will the following students please report to the office," and then he would read out a kind of Honor Role of freaks. My brother is a senior this year, and he says the old-style freaks have . virtually disappeared. Discipline problems have all but vanished. Hardly anybody comes to school drunk anymore, or gets high in class like some of my classmates used to. . What happened to the freaks? Clyde, the football player, is in the state peni tentiary for burglary. Mark, the hitch hiker, is in prison at the other end of the state. Some are driving buses, others are rebuilding transmissions or plastering walls. Many have gone to trade school and will be earning more money a lot -sooner than their classmates still in col lege. Randy Walker is a junior journalism ma jor from Richmond, Va. Letters to the editor Spring concert may not be particularly thrillm: To the editor: , Chapel Thrill? I'm not, and I'm sure I speak for many others who were more than just a little disappointed by the an nounced lineup for the campus spr ingtime "semi-tradition". The quality quantity of musical acts being presented on campus is approaching an all-time low. What has happened to name acts appearing in the intimate, acoustically designed confines of Memorial Hall? Surely a soft rocker like James Taylor would be much better suited for a show (or shows) there than in the cavern a.k.a. "toilet bowl" known as Carmichael Auditorium. It seems that someone's musical priorities are out of kilter somewhere. Hall & Oates have a reputation as notoriously poor live performers who are much better on disc courtesy of the marvels, of modern recording technique. It is not surprising that they were "en ticed" to perform. Practice makes r 3) See Tne NortVTM? learned n tow kit ya. HI6H" JU)UTE : CVpel Ml V Wow I BUSING : Tne ferfo way -q Vrin He . VOr-U closer " -' .Ik W; perfect, but why should any of us pay fork? What's going on? If chart action is the Chapel Thrill Committee's criterion for selection, there are numerous other bands on the current charts that have made more significant contributions to modern popular music than any an nounced band. If finance is a problem, what happened to last year's unused funds, student fees, etc.? Check The Daily Tar Heel for April 30, 1971. Consider the announced scenario for the upcoming weekend: Friday In Concert-Chuck Berry, Spirit, Cowboy Saturday Muddy Waters, J. Geils Band, Alex Taylor and The Aliman Brothers Sunday Tom Rush It was called Jubilee. That was a REAL celebration of spr ing! Scott Wells Chapel Hill More Thrills To the editor: My stereo is cranked with the sounds of Sting and the Police in a desperate at tempt to put the sad news out of my head. If you haven't heard, brace yourself. For a concert billed as the big bash of the year, we have booked well known wimps, Hall and Oates, and a group that averages three words per song, Kool and the Gang. May Jimmy Hendricks and Jim Croce have mercy on our souls. No, I'm not a hell-bent acid rocker, but I do believe in quality and what we basically have in. these two bands are second-rate sounds suitable for warm-up acts, not headliners. It's amazing that a bar in Raleigh can book groups like the Atlanta Rhythm Section and Southside Johnny; classier acts than we can get for a stadium con cert. I hear the committee spent eight months trying to get Hall and Oates. Nice work people, I guess we should be glad you didn't take four months. We probably would have ended up with Lawrence Welk. Oh, I'll probably go to the concert. I guess its worth the money to throw frisbees, look at bikini-clad beauties and hopefully listen to some good music in between acts. My sympathies to all seniors. Sorry your last semester has to end on such sour notes. Matthew Davis Chapel Hill I'm sure all of you students put there are on as tight a budget as I am, but I'm positive you can dig up that measley $8 ticket price somewhere. Hell, I'm canceling my order for the new '82 edi tion of the Ronco Armenian Peanut Thruster and Ginsu Knives just so I can buy two tickets (one for my mother). I'll get my $19.95 back just in time to camp out for tickets to the big jam. Listen everybody, you just can't miss this concert (unless, of course, you have something important on your schedule like washing the dog, changing the oil in your electric toothbrush or something). But seriously, when was the last time anyone has ever had the dynamite com bination of groups we've got this year? Now don't get too excited, but I've heard a rumor through Tigerbeat that the third big name rock-n-roll band may be the Partridge Family or (GASP!) Slim Whitman. . "Buzz" Ratcliffe "Skip" McSpadden "Biff Beres & the ATO Rock-N-Roliers Boy-Howdy To the editor: Jeepers! Daryl Hall, John Oates and Kool & The Gang-BOY-HOWDY, Kenan Stadium will be the hottest spot in the Southeast come April 24. Wow! I can't believe it. I have all of their albums. They're "on every top chart around" or is that on top of every chart around. The Daily Tar Heel welcomes letters to the editor and contributions of col umns to the editorial pages. All con tributions should be typed, triple spac ed on a 60-space line and are subject to editing. Column writers should include their majors, and hometowns; each letter should include the writer's name, ad dress and phone number. Unsigned letters will not be printed. i
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Feb. 22, 1982, edition 1
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