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The NEW BERN
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Johnson
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PUBLISHID WBIKLY
IN THB HIAIIT OI>
IA8TIIIN NORTH
CAROLINA
5^ Per Copy
VOLUME 14
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1971
NUMBER 3
Yesterday was when the only
use you had for electricity in
your home was to illuminate the
few light bulbs of low wattage
you fiffired you could afford.
Before that you relied on gas
fixtures, or oil lamps.
Today, we can’t get along
without washers, dryers,
stoves, toasters, vacuum
cleaners, furnaces, air con-
ditionrs, razors, radios,
television, stereos, blenders,
can openers, refrigerators,
freezers, and water heaters.
All which is nice until a
hurricane, an ice storm or some
other calamity disrupts your
flow of power, and reminds you
that your insatiable craving for
comfort and convenience has its
disadvantages.
Yesterday was when you
complained that the meter
reader was either blind or
crooked, or both, and the city
was robbing you, if your light
bill was almost two d(dlars for
just me month.
Today, the United States is
consuming six times as much
electricity as it did twenty five
years ago. Power plants, in
1970, produced 1.5 trillion
kilowatt hours of the stuff.
That’s m«« than one-third of
the total world production last
year, and as much as the next
five industrial countries
combined. Our consumptimi is
expected to double each decade
until the year 2000.
The price that you and other
Americans have already paid,
and will continue to pay, in
volves more than your monthly
bill from City Hall. Damming
and pollution of rivers and
streams, fouling of the air we
need for survival, and the ever
present danger of radiation
from nuclear power plants are
on the debit side.
Yesterday was when a
student who broke a window at
the scho(d he attended could be
sure of a Uuxrough thradiing,
and then he was expelled.
Today, in desperation, one
northern city has apprmriated
well over $2 million dc^rs to
replace glass windows in school
buildings with plastic.
At one new elementary
school, not long ago, a 12 year
old boy and a 14 year old boy
forced entry on a Sunday af
ternoon. Going from room to
room, they destroyed a closed-
circuit TV camera, movie
projectors, aquariums and
other equipment. Damage
totaled $100,000. Is it any
wonder school bond proposals
fair badly in most elections
thPAP dAVfi?
Admittedly, a single van
dalism loss amounting to
$100,000 is an exception, but the
annual overall loss in America’s
public school systems, year in
and year out, amounts to ap
proximately $100 million.
Here in New Bern, the
destruction isn’t publicized, but
senseless damage to plumbing
fixtures alone is considerable.
Such equipment doesn’t come
cheap, and destoying it is
harwy a harmless prank.
Yesterday was when students
in the public schools here
weren’t blessed with good
facilities. Rest rooms were
(Continued on page 8)
HELLO SPRING—Pamela Lyn Minschew, who
won’t be three until Independence Day, is enjoying
her third April as oithuslasticaUy as a robin on the
wing. Daucditer of Erick and Pat Arant Minschew,
two of the friendliest people ansrwhere, she loves
everything and everybody, even elderly and
overbearing newspaper editors, but reserves
special affection for her daschund, Dutch. His
prime objective is to keep up with her, which isn’t
easy since nature wasn’t exactly liberal when
Dutch was measured for legs. Although Erick, who
happens to be president of New Bern’s Jaycees, has
to be at work early, the Minschews have no alarm
clock. Pamela always wakes him up on tiie morn
ings that he is on the verge of oversleeping. Her
maternal grandparents are the Durwood Arants of
New Bern, and the W. E. Minschews of Wilson are
the paternal grandparents.
jj.