PAGE 2 - N.C. ESSAY
Commentary And Perspective
FAMOUS LONG AGO
Elections May 3rd
That Time Again
by mjf
At this time last year, Tommy
Williams was running for the
office of SCA president. The
essential thrust of his “cam
paign” had to do with the need for
making the SCA a vital, working
organ of the school. Tommy’s
statements were pretty standard
fare; nothing flamboyant, no
spectacular promises. He merely
stated that he would try, if
elected, to make the SCA more
representative of the students,
that he would try to make it an
effective organization.
Now, a year later, the most
interesting thing about Williams’
term as president (and about the
SCA itself) is that he has fulfilled
his “promise”; the SCA is a more
representitive body and it is
effective.
This is no mean achievement,
especially when you consider that
in recent years the SCA had been
virtually non-existent (or,
perhaps more accurately, non
functional).
Williams took over an
organization that had become
weak, ineffectual and
lackadasical in its duties and
worked it into something im
portant to the life of the school.
The SCA has not been without
problems. There are many areas
which still need strengthening,
change or revision. At different
times this year alone, the council
has had no less than four (two
acting) secretaries. As a result,
minutes and records are shoddy.
But the simple fact of the matter
is that Williams (and the council
as a whole) has cared enough and
worked hard enough to create a
beginning, an example, and has ‘
made headway in areas that once
seemed impossible.
Take, for example, the fact that
students are now permitted to sit
in on meetings and committees
previously closed to them.
Specifically, notice that three
SCA members (and therefore,
student representatives)are now
allowed to attend faculty council
meetings and express opinions
which are regarded seriously. Or,
the fact that students now have
voting powers in matters
regarding school policy.
Williams and the rest of the
students involved on the SCA
built the body toward real
legitimacy, something it cer
tainly had not acquired
previously. They did their job as
best they could under extremely
adveree and unusual conditions
(any such organization is going to
have trouble at a school of this
nature, if only from a time
standpoint). We think that
Williams (and the entire SCA)
deserves a lot of credit.
But the real point is this: in
order for the SCA to remain ef
fective and to continue to grow, it
needs the kind of people who are
truly willing to work for it, who
are willing to be frustrated by it,
who are willing to care when it
seems that no one else does. If the
mistakes of this year are to be
corrected, the SCA needs able
members. And that, friends, is up
to you. You have to elect the kind
of people who are going to take
the job seriously. You must know
the candidates, their proposals,
intentions, abilities. You have to
decide who will best serve you.
I know, all this sounds like a
typical shuck. But you should
know by now that any such body
is only as strong as the people in
it and that is a decision that is left
to you.
The most depressing thing
about being on the SCA (or the
newspaper, for that matter) is to
hear people bitching when you
know (because the records show
it) that only half of the student
body cared enough to even vote
last year.
That may have been an excuse
last year. There is none this year.
Unless you really don’t care.
A precedent has been set this
year, one that should be followed.
It would be a real drag to see this
year’s effort and time wasted.
It’s up to you to see that it isn’t.
(And if you really believe that
Student Councils, etc. are
meaningless, I used to go to a
very conservative, heavily
Baptist college here in North
Carolina; this year the Student
Government there is headed by
someone who refuses to com
promise and who refuses to be a
pawn; you should see the changes
that have gone down there).
The elections are on May 3rd.
The task of continuing the
traditions established this year is
clearly up to you. I think it
would be an insult if you just
don’t care. And if you don’t care,
there’s only one thing to say to
you: you had the chance. If you
blew it, shut up.
Editor
Managing Editor
Copy Editor
Photographer
Reporters
Advisor
Hovering Guru
Publisher
Emeritus
N.C. Essay Staff, 1971;
Michael J. Ferguson
Kathy Fitzgerald
Ed Schloss
Sam Barcelona
Fred Avery, Kevin Dreyer, Jon Thompson,
Cortlandt Jones, Robin Kaplan, Alexander
Marsh, Gavin, Mary Beth
Donna Jean Dreyer
Buzbee
N.C. School of the Arts
Fragola
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g school year should leave
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Conclusion
Another View
Free Galley Now!
"The Public Messiah"
by Robin Kaplan
There is, said Clapp. Do you
remember the time he had the
Christ complex and made a
pilgrimage to Greensboro with a
cross on his back to ask the
Greensboro t>olice for a glass of
water, and they locked him up for
vagrancy? He came back and
said that they’4.1ocked him up for
forty-nine hours, and that that
was a symbolic period of time.
That was the secret Dardin in
action...
Perhaps, said Lomas.
Perhaps...it’s drugs that bring it
out of him. I’d like to see the
secret Dardin in action, the part
of him beyond the jokes...I’ve
known him for twenty years, and
I’ve never seen beyond the
jokes...
He comes up to the park the
following Sunday, sees a man
with feathers in his hair on his oil
drum shouting: ANYBODY
WANT TO WHIP ME FOR TWO
DOLLARS? Dardin takes off his
belt and starts to whip him
around the ankles. The man with
feathers in his hair jumps off the
oil drum and scurries away. A
larger crowd gathers.
The other day, says Dardin, I
went into a mental hospital. Now
to be mad is one of the national
characteristics of the Irish.
Americans expect it of them and
Jesus, we never let them down.
To the gypsy or to the Apache
Indian there is no such work as
madness. Madness only means
that the gods have taken the
person’s mind. And a man must
have a great mind when the gods
have need of it, for the gods have
everything. Madness is the
highest form of intelligence^ and
combined with common sense,
madness is genius. Now when I
arrived... Would you like to know
why I went mad? I am a man who
has nothing to hide. To prove it
four Sunday mornings ago, I ran
naked through this park, wor
shipping the golden rain, and
shouting that I was the last of the
Mohicans.
Take the example of a man
walking barefooted. That’s the
Continued On Page 3
Chorus To Perform
Continued From Page 1
Also in the spirit of celebration
is Britten’s “Rejoice in the
Lamb,” a choral setting of
several passages of a long poem
of the same name, written by an
eighteenth century poet,
Christopher Smart. The main
theme of the poem, and of the
Cantata, is the worship of God, by
all created beings and things,
each in its own way.
By Stephen Bordner
The conviction of William
Calley may well be the biggest
joke of 1971. Anyone who has read
anything on the man knows he is
not a “criminal.” He is an
average American and a below
average Army Lt. Calley
followed standard operating
procedure in Vietnam, and his
going to prison for that can only
serve to lengthen the war. Until
we admit to ourselves that the
killing of women and children is
an everyday matter in Vietnam,
the American people will never
realize the destruction we have
caused, and will allow it to
continue.
If we look at the causes of My
Lai we may well begin to un
derstand the nature of the war in
Southeast Asia itself. My Lai 4 is
located in Quang Ngai Province,
the third largest in Vietnam and
the toughest Viet Cong
stronghold. The first attempts to
change this came in 1962 with the
Strategic Hamlet program;
pacification for short. This took
the form of moving whole
families into fortified hamlets. If
the families did not wish to move,
their homes and fields were
burned. The program failed.
Then, in 1965 the U.S. Marines
moved in and began operations.
By 1966 much of Quang Ngai had
been declared a free fire zone.
This meant that all civilians were
automatically suspected of being
Viet Cong or V.C. sympathizers.
Tens of thousands of tons of
bombs, rockets and napalm were
poured into that area at regular
intervals. Sometimes a pilot with
a few bombs left after a mission
would simply drop them on
anything that looked like a
target. This is called
“harrassment and interdiction.”
By 1967, 138,000 civilians were in
refugee camps and 70 percent of
the homes in the province had
been destroued, by the U.S.
It was in September of that
same year that a newly formed
division called the Americal took
over operations in Quang Ngai.
And competition was high to have
the biggest body count. The
division was operating on a policy
called search and destroy, which
amounted to nothing more than a
scorched earth policy. Whole
villages would be burned to the
ground and all the livestock killed
by squads nicknamed “zippo”,
after the lighter. The toll this had
on the civilian polulation is best
pointed by Terry Ried, who
fought there at this time.
“Our company was credited
with hundreds of kills”, he said,
“in our first fire fight, our platoon
Criticism
Abomniations In
By A. MARSH
Perhaps the most poorly
performed department at
N.C.S.A. is the mail service
which supplies students with
many necessary items and such.
The package dispensary in the
maikoom is the worst part of all.
It is erratically run (it’s almost
a miracle to find it open) and
even in those elusive periods, the
service is bad. Though I’m not
sure who should be criticized the
most - the administrator or the
employees - some action must be
assumed.
The packages are supervised
by a woman. Recently, I awaited
her arrival so I could get a
parcel. Her appearance was
slated to take place at 3:30 (she
set the time herself). I stood in
the corridor with other eager
students for at least ten minutes
past this time before I finally
spied her sauntering up. She then
went about her task with the most
surly manner; as if I’d asked her
to join the Olympics instead of
accounted for forty kills. Yet no
one in my platoon saw a (Viet
Cong) body. But I witnessed
many civilians being shot down
like clay pigeons.” As many as
sixty men, women and children
were killed in retaliation for the
deaths of a few G.I.’s killed by a
mine. The joke became anything
that was dead and not white was
a V.C.
Such was the area and the war
to which came Captain Ernest
Medina, Lt. William Calley and
the men of Charlie Company 1st
Battalion 20th Infantry. There is
no reason to dwell on the in
dividual events which made these
men capable of killing women
and children. The men were
average American infantry men.
Almost half were black with
some Mexican-Americans. Most
were 18 to 22 years of age and had
a high school education or less.
The frustration of the war, the
general contempt felt for the
Vietnamese by Americans, the
death of friends and war policy
which made Asian life very
cheap: all these factors came
into play when the company
finally entered My Lai. Ron
Grazesik, one of the members of
Charlie Company, best sums it
up: “It was like going from one
step to another, a worse one.
First, you’d stop the people,
question them, and let them go.
Second, you’d stop the people,
beat up an old man, and let them
go. Third, you’d stop the people,
beat up an old man, and shoot
him. Fourth, you go in and wipe
out a village.”
If all persons responsible for
My Lai and events like it were put
on trial we would have to start
with William Calley and work
back to Harry S. Truman. But
would this serve justice or
revenge for the moral guilt? It is
estimated by the Senate Sub
committee on Refugees that
Americans have killed 325,000
Vietnamese civilians since 1965.
And that number is perhaps
around 2 million if we count Laos,
Cambodia and North Vietnam.
No court can ever repay that
debt. America’s only justice lies
in getting out of the war and
repaying whoever wins with
financial aid. It is not much but it
is all that is left open to us. In the
end, it is the American people
who have killed in Vietnam - and
it is you and I who should stand
trial if anyone should. What one
member of Charlie Company said
about My Lai also applies to the
whole war: “The people didn’t
know what they were dying for
and the guys didn’t know why
they were shooting them.”
The Mail Room
fetching a package a few feet
away. (But then, this attitude
also appears in other em
ployees).
The package service is sup
posedly run for the benefit of the
students. Instead, it’s operated at
the convenience of that girl.
Though I have always received
expccted material toough the
mail, others have not been as
fortunate. Lost items have been
commonplace. One student found
a package notice in his box but
the mailroom girl had seemingly
misplaced it. It was recovered in
a couple of days and, instead of
being apologetic the girl was very
brusque. Perhaps her ultimate
attrocity occured when another
student watched her actually step
on a package as she indolently
scrambled around to find a
newspaper. Though not as con
troversial as the dear departed
Errmia, this gal seems to be
rising in notoriety all the time.
I hope this article has attrac^
your deserved anger. In asking
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