ew6 - journal
A S S O C I .
/??**'
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER association
ASSOCIATION
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THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1982
Candidates might bone up
Candidates running for election to Hoke County offices, including
seats on the Board of Education, might use the time between now
and election day to bone up on what they can and can't do as county
commissioners or school board members.
The Institute of Government at Chapel Hill has all the
information any candidate for any public office ? city, county, state
or federal - needs to know about the office he is shooting for.
-BL
Keep McCain open
From The Pilot of Southern Pines
It appears inevitable that the nearby McCain Hospital will be
closed in the near future for the care and treatment of tuberculosis
patients, although there are many who believe that the need for such
a facility still exists and will exist for a long time.
The disease of tuberculosis is on the decline, but there are still
outbreaks and it may not be possible to always treat patients in local
hospitals.
McCain Hospital has a long and distinguished record of service,
and in recent years it has undertaken the care and treatment of other
lung ailments other than tuberculosis. There has been a movement
at the state level, with the Legislature and the Department of Human
Resources, to close such specialty hospitals, however. The closing of
McCain as such a hospital has been delayed by strong public protest,
especially from the Sandhills area, but how much longer such
protests can prevail is a question.
If such a closing for this specific purpose should come, however,
there should be no closing of the excellent facility for other services.
One proposal now tinder consideration is to use the facility for the
care and treatment of the retarded or for general mental health
purposes. The facility could be easily adapted for such use. Other
uses should also be considered.
McCain offers too much to be abandoned.
Fire over Falklands
From The Christian Science Monitor
Britain is combining resoluteness with carefully measured
pressure in its military actions in the Falklands. The world can only
feel disappointment that the Falklands crisis has reached the point
of shooting. But the military operations at this writing appear to
have been precisely calculated and relatively restrained: presumably
because Britain seeks at every turn to give Argentina an opportunity
to step back from its unlawful course, and because the British are
under constraints to minimize casualties. There is no taste for an
all-out bash. The question is how far the shooting will go before the
realities of the situation sink home in Buenos Aires. The battle is in
effect a test of wills.
Reason still lies on the side of a negotiated settlement, and few
look upon the British military pressures as other than setting the
stage for further diplomacy. Now that the United States has come
down squarely on the side of its British ally ? and it could do no less
morally or politically ? Washington's role as a mediator seems
effectively diminished.
A next logical step is to move the diplomatic focus to the United
Nations, as Britain and the United States show some signs of doing.
Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar already is engaged in a
vigorous effort to find a solution that would enable Argentina to
withdraw its forces from the Falklands and begin talks without
intolerable loss of face. Britain seems lukewarm to another Security
Council meeting. But it must weigh the international criticism it
would invite if it resisted a UN initiative to bring the crisis to an end
? and the prospect of heavy loss of life if it remained adamant.
Inasmuch as Britain is acting under the legal imprimatur of a
Security Council resolution and the UN Charter, it could hardly
refuse to go along with further council action.
It is Argentina, however, that faces anguishing choices. Pride,
honor, prestige ? all these are now bound up with the sorry
predicament it has gotten itself into. Can it extricate itself without a
change of government, with all the risk and instability this would
entail? That is impossible to know. But. if the Argentinians are
acting out of true national self-interest rather than jingoistic
emotion, they will reflect on the benefits to be gained by swallowing
their pride, which is not a good guide to action in any circumstance.
There is. after all. no dispute of substance over the Falklands ?
which makes full-scale war all the more ridiculous. Britain has long
been prepared to give up sovereignty of the islands if the Falklanders
can be brought around. With all that has happened in the past
month, it is not unlikely that the next effort to persuade the islanders
of the reasonableness of some new political arrangement will be
more successful.
While search for a diplomatic solution goes on, a British policy of
military restraint is to be encouraged. To be sure, Prime Minster
Margaret Thatcher is fighting for a principle ? namely, that
aggression not be rewarded. On this score she has the support of
most of the international community and rightly so. International
law has to be defended and democracies must be willing to take
appropriate action to defend it. But largeness of character in a
v nation ? and political sagacity ? also require knowing the point
v?rV ; f
Come on in ? the water's fine!'
beyond which an adversary must not be humiliated if the way to
peace is to be opened. It is to be recalled, for instance, that Israel
stopped short of inflicting total defeat on the Egyptians in the 1973
war; the eventual outcome of that "stalemate" was the first peace
treaty in the Middle East in over 30 years. Moreover, if great
numbers of Argentinians are killed ? in a squabble that is not really
a squabble ? Britain must reckon with how it might then look in the
eyes of the world.
Needed on all sides, in short, is the ability to see the difference
between human will and wisdom. If Britain's and Argentina's
friends cannot directly affect the sad events unfolding in this remote
corner of the globe, they surely can pray that two nations of
Christian persuasion will find the moral courage and the insight to
settle their differences by peaceful means.
CLIFF BLUE . . .
People & Issues
TWO YEAR TERMS.. .From all
we can hear, the proposed N.C.
Constitutional Amendment which
would lengthen the terms of State
House and Senate members from
two years to four years will be
found lacking a majority.when the
?*" votes are counted and the polls
close June 29, 1982. While the
members of the General Assembly
gave the proposed Amendment a
majority of the votes in the House
and Senate, we hear little support
from them as primary day ap
proaches.
We feel that the vote on a pro
posed Amendment to the State
Constitution should be in the
General Election in November
rather than in a primary when not
as many people vote. "That was a
reason for the Primary vote as its
promoters realize that fewer votes
are cast in the primaries than in
the General Election, and the
Assembly members evidently felt
that a smaller vote in the primary
would be a better chance to win
than with a larger vote in the
General Election.
DRINKING. ..We hear much
about our young people drinking
too much and causing wrecks and
deaths on the highways. This ap
pears to be true, but we doubt that
raising the drinking age will have
much to do with highway wrecks
and fatalities. We are not against
the proposal to raise the age limit
at which one can buy intoxicating
beverages. It might help a little,
but what we believe would help
much more would be stiffer and
stricter laws on the matter. Man
datory jail sentences for driving
under a certain amount of alcohol
would be far more effective. Such
a revision of the law would pro
bably be much harder to pass than
increasing the age of drinking.
According to the Wall Street
Journal, "Half of the traffic
fatalities in the U.S. each year are
caused by alcohol related crashes,
in which approximately 70 persons
are killed each day."
BALANCING THE BUDGET!
... We have said before and we say
again: The United States should
balance its budget, not later but
now! The longer we wait, the
harder it will be.
The deeper Uncle Sam goes into
debt, the more it looks as if it can't
balance the budget, but it con
sistently keeps on raising the
Federal debt. I thought Carter was
bad <too6$h, but Ronald Reagan is
rthnMhf^rnt&s around the Carter
Administration in piling debt upon
debt!
While 1 didn't vote for Reagan, I
had hoped thai he would try to
balance the budget as he pledged in
his campaign.
He was citing Carter's inability
to govern, by piling another
$40,000,000 upon the tremendous
debt in 1980!
Reagan is going to make a
"piker" out of Carter.
Temporarily, 1 am talking
against my own pocketbook. Pret
ty soon 1 am going to apply for
Social Security, but the govern
ment should not raise Social
Security payments and salaries
when the nest egg is getting smaller
and smaller each year.
I have paid Social Security since
it started back in the 1930's and
had it been continued and carried
out according to Franklin D.
Roosevelt's philosophy, it would
be great, but it has grown big and
fat, spending much more than is
coming in!
Our congressman, our U.S.
Senators, and Presidents are
responsible for the weak and in
secure situation which we find our
country in today, and these people
in charge don't seem to have the
courage to stop, look, and do
something about it before the well
runs dry!
NOT EASY. ..We know it will
not be easy to balance the budget
which has been done only a few
times since World War II. It will
take statesmanship and courage. A
leader who will not be thinking
about the next election but the next
generation.
In almost every department or
division, we believe that nine out
of ten people could do the same
job in government. If the govern
ment would attempt to get along
with one less, and if one could not
be decreased, than cut the budget
down to nine and pay the ten what
nine would get.
Puppy Creek
Philosopher
wiwar nr.*
It's a Small W orld
By Bill Lindau
Now they've done it.
Chewing gum for the rich.
It's Stimorol, put out by a
Danish company, the New York
Times tells us.
The Danes regard the product as
a tine breath freshener and know it
sells in Europe, the report con
tinues.
For Americans, it says, the
Danes are changing the gum's color
from blue to pure white, packaging
it in silvery paper with a Gucci
stripe and charging 35 or 30 cents
for 12 pieces.
The Times observes that the idea
sounds plausible, pointing out that
there is bubble gum for kids,
sugarTree gum for mothers and
dentists, anti-smoking gum, liquor
flavored gum. Why not go up and
down the gum scale? the report
asks; if monograms and stripes sell
tennis shirts and loafers, why not
gum?
The paper says it wishes the
Danes well but adds it worries that
it may not be easy. "Our concern,"
the report says, "is not with the
quality, the price of the packaging
but with the intrinsic idea: Do rich
people chew gum?"
Its favorite authority on the rich
says, with cool confidence; "Cer
tainly not in Newport or Palm
Beach, and where else matters?"
"Just as we thought," The Times
declares. "We suspect that pack
aging chewing gum for the rich is
like packaging polyester slacks for
the rich, or U-Haul trailers for the
rich, or TV dinners for the rich.
The problem isn't flavor but taste." i
* * *
The producers of television pro
grams could capitalize on boycotts
by the Coalition for Better Tele
vision and other would be censors
the same way some producers of
stage plays and movies did with
Boston censorship of several years
ago. ,
When the Boston censors pre
vented a play from being shown,
the producer would run the line
"Banned in Boston" on his ad
vertising. That, of course, perked
up the interest of a lot of people
who wouldn't have paid any at
tention to the production normally.
The TV people could spread the
word in their ads similarly: "This
program boycotted by CBT."
People would get curious about why
the boycott was put on and watch '
the program, thus boosting the
Nielsen rating substantially.
Seriously, though, the NBC
chairman. Grant Tinker, has a
better response to such boycotts:
"If we did better programs ?? just
higher quality television - the ?
questions about content would go
away."
He says it's not the level of sex or
violence that is the "big sin," if one {
is being committed, but the TV
program producers' aiming for the
viewing of the "lowest common
denominator" of taste in viewers.
Letters To The Editor
Editor, The News-Journal
As an employee at McCain
Hospital. I am concerned, quite
naturally, with the threatened clos
ing of McCain Hospital. Finding
work elsewhere for those of us who
are medical professionals won't be
particularly difficult, but it will be
for many others who are non
professional.
The greatest, most frightening,
aspect of closing McCain is what
will happen to our patients, tuber
cular and non-tubercular. The
tubercular patient especially will be
suffering from the callous, politi
cal. inhumane decision to close the
last TB hospital in North Carolina.
Contrary to the claims from
Raleigh. TB is not under complete
control and it has been on the
increase according to a Fall report
from the Disease Control Center in
Atlanta. Georgia. It is very unfor
tunate. even calamitous, that the
average TB patient is not politically
oriented or popular.
When someone in Raleigh who is
wrapped tightly in a bureaucratic
cocoon decides to cut off a portion
of North Carolina because the
numbers are small or it has no clout
economically, it isn't too surprising
with the current administration.
What angers and puzzles me
most is best illustrated by two
events:
1) Why were we informed by the
Department of Human Resources
in March. 1981, that we were to
close, and we were presented with a
phasing out schedule ? yet this was
months in advance of a legislative
vote? If local efforts had not been
made to reverse this edict, we
would have been closed last year.
2) Why did a hospital adminis
trator from a general hospital north
of Fayetteville tell me this past
week that his medical staff had
been told that McCain is closed and
not accepting TB patients? Who
gave these doctors that inaccurate
information? What is the source of
this falsehood? The legislature
voted we were to be funded through
June. 1983.
If someone, presumably in
Raleigh, supplies incorrect state
ments about McCain which is
detrimental to public health, well,
that's dirty pool and, indirectly, a
death blow to many TB patients.
Such an attitude is disastrous,
insensitive and adverse for TB
patients and the general public.
Abuse of power in this problem
certainly takes the word Human
from the Department of Human
Resources and leaves the word
Resources e.g. MONEY, POLITI
CAL INFLUENCE and FAVORI
TISM.
Most sincerely,
Catherine D. McLean, R.N.
Dear editor:
The Board of Education is a
body of officials elected for four i
year terms. The members are
public servants elected to #erre for
the betterment of our educational
system and schools. In Hoke
County there is a five-member
board made up of two farmers, a
physician's wife, a pharmacist, and
a director of nurses, just "everyday
folks" with various lifestyles, each
elected to serve the public, except
for one appointee who is filling out
Dr. Riley Jordan's term. Each
member receives a stipend for
his/her services, in *81-'82
$7,300.00 (about-, $1460 each),
which will be raiseottbAl^.lOCP,
'82-'83 if the prpjjo^ed budget^
passes plus travel' expenses. Tn*
addition, the school superintendent
(appointed by the board), the
assistant superintendent, the bud
get director and legal counsel
attend most meetings.
The Board meets the first Tues
day of each school month at 7:30
E.D.T. (7:00 E.S.T.). All meetings
are open to the public and the
members welcome public atten
dance to provide input to assist
them in decision making. Since this
body is elected it only makes sense
that they would welcome opinions
from those who put them in office
because if they were to make
decisions with which the public 1
disagreed, they would not be
reelected .
The only reasons for closed
meeting (i.e. executive sessions) are
for personnel matters, land pur
chases. and labor relations. Lately
Hoke County's Board of Education
seems to have its share of these
issues to take care of because its
members spend anywhere from one
and a half to three hours per
meeting in executive session. It |
seems that they have time to discuss
other matters, but that wouldn't be
legal so they obviously wouldn't do
that.
Mina Townsend was extremely
cordial to me at the first meeting I
attended. She asked me how 1
enjoyed the meeting and whether I
learned anything then added, "Feel
free to come anytime you want."
Sometimes it seems that the I
board members don't realize that
the teachers are not always in
agreement with their decisions.
That isn't surprising since they
hardly ever hear anything contrary
to their decisions from the faculty.
It's almost as though the faculty is
intimidated by them and the
superintendent.
Why should anyone who is not
doing anything illegal or immoral
be afraid of elected officials in a (
democracy?
Sincerely,
Naomi Johnson
Dear editor:
More and more people are
becoming alarmed over the world
wide catastrophe that'd result from
an all-out nuclear war.
I guess catastrophe is the right
word to use when you're talking
about the elimination of human life
on earth, along with a lot of other
creatures including cats whose nine
lives won't be enough if it's true
there are enough warheads on hand
now to kill everybody ten times
over.
If total destruction isn't enough
of an argument against the use of
the things, there's another argu
ment that ought to be put forward;
the protection of our investment.
It s impossible to get an accurate
figure, but a rough estimate is that
the world, including the under
developed countries who stand to
get vaporized scot-free, has about
S400 billion invested in nuclear
arms already stockpiled, with more
being produced regardless of how
far it extends the world's deficits.
So look at it from a financial
standpoint. We've got all that
money invested and who wants to
risk losing it in an all-out battle?
There's nothing more wasteful of
weapons that getting them envolved
in a war.
Properly stored and kept out of
the rain and out of the reach of
children and mad men. the world's
present stock of nuclear bombs
ou ght jxHasMor^enerations^^h^
somebody may come out with new
models now and then, probably call
them designer bombs, but the
basic product will remain un
changed and sensible people
shouldn't be swayed by every new
feshion whim that comes along. I
wouldn't give a penny more for a
nuclear bomb just because it has
some movie star's name on the hip
pocket or wherever it goes on a
warhead.
I'll say it again, the world's got
too much money invested in nu
clear bombs to risk losing all of it in
a war. Be the dumbest Financial
move mankind could make.
Yours faithfully.
J. A.