Page 14A
Thursday, July 1984
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
THE TO I
EEL
Bi Pi rkowski, Editor
Lynn Davis, Managing Editor
Jodi Smith, News Editor
Allen Mic.hie, Arts & Features Editor
Michael Persinger, Sports Editor
Jamie Moncrief, Photography Editor
Staff: David Biddell, Tim C.mhrty, Melissa Croom, Joel Curran, Eric K. Englebardt,
Paul Enssun.Amy Gates, Ivy Hii i iard, Eddie Huffman, Mark Lee, Andy Miller, Lori
Nickel, Mary Ridgill, Mariorii Roach, Carol Scovil, Debra Smith, Virginia D. Smith,
Camii.le Chandler Vallrio, Art Woooruff, Fannie Zollicoffer, Mike Schoor, assistant
sports editor. Business & Advertising: Anne Fulcher, general manager; Tammy Martin,
student business manager: Paula Bri wer, advertising manager; Mike Tabor, advertising
coordinator; TERRY Lee, student advertising manager; TRISH Gorry, advertising
representative; Brenda M(X)Ri:, production coordinator. Printing: Hinton Press, Mebane,
No self-incrimination in ruling
To the editor:
Regarding your editorial "Reg
ister or else" (The Tar Heel, July
12, 1984), I do not see how the
Supreme Court ruling "compels
self-incrimination."
To cite an analogy, I must
certify each year that I have
registered a property tax form
with Orange County or I am not
eligible to renew my automobile
license tags. No one "compels"
me to incriminate myself by
falsely certifying that I have done
so.
What's the difference? The
difference is that some clerk in
the State government probably
decided the issue in the lattej case,
without bothering the Supreme
Court.
John L.S. Hickey
Chapel Hill
Safety first
Last week Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole
announced that the administration would require automakers
to equip passenger cars with air bags or automatic seat belts
unless states pass mandatory seat belt laws. The decision
met with immediate criticism from those who see it as a
blatant example of governmental paternalism; but, even
conceding its paternalistic overtones, the decision is a sound
and wise approach to the tremendous problem of highway
safety.
A seat belt law will strike many as an overly intrusive
instance of the government trying to protect people from
a danger they already consciously face. As was the case with
the motorcycle helmet law, many people feel the government
has no right to regulate their lives so closely. "If I want
to ride around without a seat belt and risk my own life,
that's my choice."
However, this logic disregards the overall benefits that
laws protecting people from themselves can bring. If a law
were established today requiring seat belts, millions of people
who normally never think of wearing a seat belt would start
and eventually develop a habit which saves lives every day.
We hope the states will take this cue from the federal
government and enact a seat belt law before federally imposed
punishments force the issue. Whatever happens, critics of
this "paternalism" should step back and consider the sheer
good sense of a law that can mean the difference between
certain death and surviving an accident with nothing more
than a sore neck.
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The Tar Heel welcomes letters
to the editor and contributions
of columns for the editorial
page.
Such contributions should be
typed, triple-spaced, on a
60-space line, and are subject to
editing. Contributions must be
submitted by noon each Monday.
Column writers should include
their majors and hometowns;
each letter should include the
writer's name, address and tele
phone number.
Ziggie looks back on that crazy first year
By ZIGGIE TARDUST
Incoming freshmen are flooded with a
barrage of information the first few days
of the fall semester. There are handouts
telling the floored frosh what to, how to,
where to, why to, when to and who to
see about almost everything you would
want to know about UNC. But there is
nothing like looking back on the expe
rience to see what you would do differently
if you could relive your good ole' freshman
year.
So, return with me now to those golden
days of yesteryear as I recall my first days
at UNC. For those who are yet to become
college students, or for those brave enough
to wake up tomorrow morning and start
again, pop a beer and gather 'round.
I spent the first few hours driving around
Carrboro looking for a major university.
I found a beauty college -and the Art
School, but I couldn't shake the strange
feeling that something was missing.
I eventually found UNC and parked my
station wagon and trailer packed lull of
the bare esssentials in front of my dorm.
I brought a load in and came back, but
my car was gone. The policeman wouldn't
give it back, either, when I told him to
give me a break because I was only a
freshman.
I hooked up my $2,000 ' stereo and
cranked out the soundtrack to Footloose
while I unpacked my Izods and old
Goodbye, Mom and Dad, hello self-flagellation and
chemically-induced pub lie humiliation!
Raggedy Ann and Andy bedsheets. A few
guys from the hall came in and introduced
themselves. I thought I would show them
I could be a pretty funny guy by telling
a few racist jokes, and a sh'ort Polish
homosexual black Jew from New Jersey
came in and put down his suitcase.
There were a few meetings that day with
advisers, etc., that I blew off to check out
the awesome college babes around the
Granville pool. From what I understood,
you could figure out drop-add once you
got there and you could pick up a bunch
of slides first semester and worry about
General College later hell, you have four
years, right?
Then it happened. On my way back from
Granville, I saw him. A basketball player!
Here was part of the myth the legend
the power of Carolina, in the flesh. I
had been following Carolina basketball for
years, so that was reason enough to make
UNC the only place I applied. I heard once,
I think, that the academics were OK, too.
I guess I made a pretty big scene out there
in the parking lot, passing out after Timo
signed my arm. It was killer.
The sun finally set over Fowler's and
it was time to hit Franklin Street. My first
night at college! Goodbye, Mom and Dad,
hello self-flagellation and chemically
induced public humiliation! I borrowed a
shirt from my roommate, who surely
wouldn't mind, splashed on some Polo
cologne, pulled the ends of my boxers past
the legs of my shorts, removed my socks
and wrote "The Kid is bustin loose" on
my Garfield noteboard.
I'd tell you about what I did that night,
but I don't remember it too well. I know
it had something to do with vomiting on
the car of my future English professor and
asking the bartender at Purdy's to wrap
me up 110 pounds of grade-A choice
USDA-inspected prime blonde to go. My
fake ID did get me one thing back into
my room when I realized I forgot my keys.
The next day I heard that all of the
awesome college babes were at drop-add,
so I thought I would go check it out.
I picked up a few classes someone told
me were slides econ, chemistry and
physics with a lab. I kinda wish someone
had told me that I had to pay tuition before
I could register the Woollen Gym floor
makes a hard bed.
I emerged a few days later and decided
that I would think a step ahead of everyone
else at UNC and would beat the crowds
at the Student Stores and buy my books
later, when I was sure which ones I needed.
I also thought to bring a No. 2 pencil to
class on the first day to fill out forms.
Pretty smart, huh? Hell, I got into
Carolina.
I didn't bother setting my alarm clock
the next morning, because I knew I could
wake up whenever I wanted to. No, really,
I did it all the time at home. Nothing ever
happens on the first day of class anyway.
I stumbled in to class, a lecture with about
500 students, and the only seat left was
in the exact geometric center of the room.
While everybody was staring at me, I
victoriously pulled out my No. 2 pencil.
Everyone else opened their textbooks to
page 762.
I spent the rest of that first official day
standing around in the Pit. This was
Carolina! Beer! Awesome college babes!
Beer! Fraternities! Beer! Basketball! Beer!
Those "nostalgic college buddies"! Beer!
Road trips! Beer! Yes, those freshman days
were something else again. IVe earned my
Tar Heel sweatshirt. Wouldn't change a
thing.
Ziggie Tar dust, a graduate of Country Day
School in Charlotte who is majoring in
"undecided. " is entering his seventh year
as a Carolina undergraduate. He was
interviewed by Arts & Features Editor
Allen Michie.