Opinions
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July kicks off second half
July ushers in the second half of
the calendar year.
The month was named for Julius
Ceasar (it was formerly Quintilis);
it was the month in which Caesar
was born.
For Americans July is especially
historic. Our independence is
celebrated on the Fourth. The Bat
tle of Gettysburg was fought dur
ing the first three days of July in
1863.
Three of our presidents were
born in July: John Quincy Adams,
Calvin Coolidge and Gerald Ford.
The first admiral in the U.S. Navy,
David G. Farragut, was born on
July 5, i 801. The Republican Par
ty was founded July 6, 1854, at
Cliff
Blue
People and Issues
Jackson, Michigan.
One largely forgotten, though
important day is July 10. On that
day in 1942 the Allies invaded
Europe for the first time in World
War II. General Dwight
Eisenhower directed an am
phibious invasion of Sicily.
July, the first full moon of sum
mer, is a month of vacations,
holidays, swimming, boating and
outdoor pleasures -- and too many
highway accidents.
PRAYER IN SCHOOLS ...
When 1 went to school years ago
there was Bible reading and prayer
in schools with no one having any
objection. Today it's difficult to
accept objection to setting aside a
few minutes for prayer and
"meditation."
The Supreme Court has in
dicated it won't interfere with such
a policy, and hasn't in one case.
Meditation is a good catch-all,
in fact, it would cover the spiritual
desires.
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Edenborough Center
Drug juries raise questions
RALEIGH -- As the legislature
debates whether law enforcement
officials should have a powerful
new tool to fight drug trafficking,
it will have to determine if that
powerful tool can be controlled.
Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumber
land, has proposed that in
vestigative grand juries be
authorized for state drug investiga
tions. But abuse of such grand
juries in other states prompted a
prominent Raleigh defense at
torney to tell a legislative commit
tee that the bill could lead to some
serious assaults on the civil liber
ties of innocent North Carolinians.
Grand juries currently operate in
North Carolina. But, they are
limited to investigating a particular
crime. If law enforcement wants to
investigate a drug ring, for exam
ple, a grand jury can't help,
district attorneys say. An in
vestigative grand jury would be
able to call witnesses, require
testimony, subpoena records and
generally investigate that ring.
But grand juries in other states
have been abused. They can be lit
tle more than a fishing expedition
in which a politically inspired
district attorney sets out to destroy
the reputations of his opponents.
The federal courts, hoping to
eliminate such abuse, have
Watching
By Paul T.
O'Connor
established guidelines for in
vestigative grand juries. Ed Gran
nis, district attorney for
Cumberland County, says the
Rand bill is far more restrictive
than the federal guidelines. If the
bill passed in its current form, he
said, it would be the most restric
tive in the nation.
Rand's bill would require a local
district attorney to seek creation of
the grand jury. The attorney
general and a special three-judge
panel would have to approve it. It
could only be convened for in
vestigations of illicit drug traffick
ing.
While that sounds like a lot of
protection, it really isn't, says Joe
Cheshire, a nationally recognized
defense attorney from Raleigh who
was representing the N.C.
Academy of Trial Lawyers. If a
district attorney or a sheriff wants
to instigate proceedings for
political purposes, he'll have little
trouble.
Cheshire said a sheriff would tell
the district attorney he has reason
to believe that someone is involved
in drug trafficking and that a
grand jury is needed. The district
attorney would probably take his
word and initiate the action. The
attorney general would probably
rely on the district attorney's ad
vice and the three-judge panel
would rely on the attorney
general's recommendation.
Once that grand jury is opened,
the sheriff's ability to smear his
opponent's reputation is tremen
dous. The proceedings of the
grand jury would be closed but
Cheshire said there would be some
public information. Plastered
across the fronts of newspapers
and heading the TV news would be
stories about a citizen being called
before the grand jury investigating
drug dealing. The obvious implica
tion would be that the man is
somehow involved and that would
destroy that man's reputation,
Cheshire said.
Rand called Cheshire's
hypothesis a "distortion" and
said, "1 have a little more faith in
our public officials than that."
Grannis said very few grand juries
would be called. Wake County
District Attorney Randolph Riley
added that the amount of work in
volved in an investigative grand
jury would limit the number a
district attorneys could seek.
Farming world's largest business
by W.B. Jenkins
N.C. Farm Bureau Federation
American agriculture is the
world's largest commercial in
dustry, with assets exceeding 51
trillion. This industry employs
more than 22 million people, 20%
of America's labor force.
The agricultural industry in
cludes farming, transporting, pro
cessing, manufacturing, and retail
ing food and fiber. The combined
agricultural industry accounts for
$609.5 billion ? 20?7o -- of the Na
lion's Gross National Product
(GNP).
With less than three-tenths of
1% of the world's farmers and
farmworkers, the United States
produces these amounts of the
world's total food supply; soy
beans, 64%; grapefruit, 56%;
corn, 46%; sorghum, 31 %;
oranges, 25%; poultry, 24%;
green peas, 23%; beef, 23%; cot
ton, 18%; wheat, 17%; eggs, 14%;
and pork, 13%.
How times have changed: Fifty
years ago there were 6.7 million
farms in the United States; the
average size farm was 152 acres;
there were 12 million farmers and
farmworkers, each of whom, on
the average, produced enough
food and Tiber for 10 people. To
day there are 2.4 million farms; the
average size farm is 432 acres; and
there ah 3.5 million farmers and
farmworkers.
Today one hour of farm labor
produces 16 times as much food
and fiber as it did 60 years ago.