Page 2
The Hilltop of Mars Hill College
Thursday, December 9, 1993
Thursday, Dece
The Opinions Page
A Dm irv
POLICY
Th» Opinions Pag® is a forum tor any member of the Mars Hill community to express their Ideas,
... ... —^ Hilltop does not discriminate against anyone who wishes to submit a
jned, but the editor can withhold the name if requested. Send all iet-
JOP, PO ^6148, MARS HILL, NC 28754. The views presented on this page
are not necessarily those of the Hiittop or of Mars Hill College^ :::
Amy Webb’s
Spdei's WdDb: “AChristmastoRmiembef ’
I like to think of Christmas as a time of joy,
peace, love, and miracles. And it should be that
way. I would like to share a story that I think
ettirraces Christmas and its lost meaning.
A few years ago Henry and his family
returned to his mountain home. He was the
youngest of seven children and had had a humble
upbringing Nowhewasa£ather,anditwasgoing
to be a wonderfijl Christmas. All of Henry’s
brothers and sisters were going to be together
again for a real family gathering.
His mother and fiither greeted them and the
grandchildrea Everyone had warmed
themselves by the fire and told stories while
others showed pictures. It was getting late and
the children were rubWng their eyes, trying to
fight the sleepiness. As the parents began to put
them all to b^ Henry’s five-year-old son said he
wanted to stay up to see Santa Clause.
“You are such a baby!” one of his cousins
snapped. “There is no such thing as Santa
Clause.”
The five-year-old dropped his head and tears
swelled in his eyes.
“Son, as long as you believe,” Henry said,
“there is always a Santa Clause.” The
five-year-old smiled and gave his Daddy a brig
hug.
“Now off to bed!’ his mother smd.
Henry and the other adults went to their cars
and retrieved the bags of presents. They had
picked out each ^ with care. Henry thou^
about how blesed his family was. Each
Christmas the presents were bi^r and better
than the year before. It was unlike his own
childhood. They were lucky if they received a
hand-made toy that sometimes took hours to
make. Theylo^thetoysasmudiasiftheyhad
been store bou^
Heruy knocked the snow off his Ixxrts and
stepped inside the house. His wife gave him a
kissonthecheekandwenttobed. Everyoneelse
had settled down for the nigfit, but Henry was
assemblingabikehe had purchased for his eldest
child. The night hours were passing, and Henry
slipped off to sleep.
Hewasawakenedbyalouddangjngoutside.
He dropped the handle brars to the Irike and ran
to the door. When he opened the door, he saw
the biggest sleigji he had ever seen! Andeigjit
reindeer were strapped in a line and cormected
to the sleigji.
He went out to investigate. “This can’t be
real!” he thought as he patted the back of one of
the remdeer. He dedded to go in and tell the
others. He went back into the house and heard
a clanging behind him. The sleigh was gone as
magically as it had come.
The rest of the family was awakened and
wondered ivhat was going oa Then the
five-year-old yelled, “Look! It’s Santa Clause!”
The family turned and looked toward the
crystal dear sky and they could see a red sleigh
with remdeer pulling it toward the north. “See
there is a Santa Clause!” screamed the
five-year-old.
“As long as you believe,” Henry smiled.
It took the faith of a small child to help a
family remember that Christmas was about
mirades and believing. What would have
becomeofusif Christ didn’t believembeingbom
and dying for us?
Mike Wachtendorf’s
Babble On: Recapping A Semester
of Learning
At-Ri
As the long, waytoo eventful, semester draws
to an abnqrt stop, look back and wonder what
happened these last few months...
Shazam! Back at school! Who knew it
would come so soon? Airgust 18,1993. A new
CTop of would-be acquaintances (fireshmen)
show up a few days later. Fireworks fill the sky.
Fm back in LA LA LAND.
Home was great, but nowhere in America
can a person find the oppodte sex as easily as he
can on a college campus. I did, brig whoop;
nothing to tell the grandkids about! (At the rate
Fm going now, fixture grandkids aren’t all that
probable)!
Fveleamedquiteabrit lately. (Wow,leaming
things at college... how odd)!
Fve been taken on some great scholarly
pursuits and some not so great but no less
scholar^.
All &e theories and formulas that have come
my way somehow seem to disappear at least for
now, but the many things Fve learned about
myself andabout other people win lastforawhile.
Fve contemplated a thing or two;
Why am I here? Why is anybody here? Am
I doing the ri^ thing? Am I treating people
rigjit? Is Rush Limbau^ a god?
The answer to the first two questions is: we
are here doing what we are doing because
without coUege d^rees our lives would likely be
duHandunfiiifining I take the classes Fm taking
and do the work Fm doing because it is the
conventional thing to do, and who would dare to
be imconventional?
A short time ago, I would have said that I
learn for the sake of knowledge: knowledge is
power. WeD, Fve changed my mind; knowing
the rigjit people is power. Don’t let anybody tiy
to convince you differently.
No.Rushisnotagod He’snotevenanangeL
The other two questions are universal to all
ofus. Doing the ri^ thing is not an easy .j,.
Sennetimes, iFs real hard to see consequ^ 5^ s^ester the M
whenchoicesmustbemade.Butconsequ5 *
when choices must b»e made. But conseqoj^ ,«j . ^student vohD]
must be dealt with anyway. Fve
Py Freda BantI
Hilltop Staff Writer
imrr
tutc
^9dle grades in Ma
there are even consequences of who I (195 (.3°^ Henderson, a 1
friends - sometimes good, sometimes»» said ^“"sfeDbyA
good.
Fd like to think that I treat people few inj^, mgtutoredhel
sometimes when treated as you’ve been oiq,_. ^rmakethe/
you realize the true agnificance of “1
actions. . jj fj,
One thingFve learned and am conWP^j to(ijg^5®^'''3sdesi
is treating peopled^ Mom used to say, schoQ,, _ ^“toftheco
can’tgowrongwhenyou’redoingrighL”.N5 Mv)fo>-Coi
she was ri^ Fve definitely ended up ® J ° tul
painfully embarra^ and sticky Penod, after
when I wasn’t treating people rig^ J
I started the year out searching
Mine seemed to have graduated last
wasn’t really depressed, but I did feel a
in my life where special people had
beea
I looked around and saw few
Whoisgonnawanttobemyfiiend? Icoi
moving on and transferring if things
me iq), but somehow they did
I remember some very
conversafions with folks I had nevef
spcricen with biefore. WiD, Matt, Dean,
have all gven me words to live by at one J
another. These words have changed
have made me calm and patient and not ^
idealistic as Fve previously beea
wordsIamverythankfiiL . ^
To sum iq) what they have said is siw
L You can’t hurry love and
2. Friendshipsjustkindofhappo*^|
I kncjwwhat they mean, andl thinkl
some new fiiends b^use of iL
Alexanf
Guest Writer
.^Knes. Thehusde
IV ^^ongestedparking:
Layaway. C
Dwayne A. Kennedy’s
Eye On Tbe Storm: Health Care Update
November 29,IattendedtheHealthCareForumatPackPlace
shopping
Out to get the b
^ never nrissir^ a sale,
P^dfesslyfortheper
^thatistheptobl
'Ve'^^oppingej^jeriet
to realize that
Issue #
Deadline
Distribution
8
1/21/94
1/27/94
g
2/4/94
2/10/94
10
2/18/94
2/24/94
11
3/4/94
3/10/94
12
4/1/94
4/7/94
13
4/15/94
4/21/94
14
4/29/94
5/5/94
All submissions are due by NOON on deadline
days and are txi go under The Hilltop office
door or to PO Box 6148 by Noon on that day.
in Asheville that was sponsored by Interim Health Care and had
Congressman Charles Tajior present to address concerns relating
to the Clinton Health Seairily plan. E>uring this forum.
Congressman Taylor stated his po^on and had a member of his
staff oqrlain the Clinton plan to those in attendance. At the
conclusion there was a brief question and answer period when
Congressman Tajior asked members in the audience ctbout their
concerns and qu^ons in regard to health care.
First of all, this forum seemed to be not very informative and
was heavily briased with Republican rhetoric. CongressmanTaylor
stated “We have the best health care system in place in regard to
quality and afifordabrility.” This in the face of an ever-increasing
number of people that cannot afford health care and health
insurance.
Let me give you some figures directly from a pamphlet Taylor
provided during his forum. It states that in 1^, 33.4 milhon
Americans were without any form of health insurance. Well it is
1993now, and believably, that figure has risen significantly to 37
minion. S^nteenmillionoftheuninsuredare job holdersin 1989;
these folks tend to lie small business, self-employed, part-time, or
seasonal workers. Unfortunately, 40% are imder the age of 25.
Over 3 millinn have familiy incomes of $50,000 or more each
year and 62 million have family incomes between $30,000 and
$50,000. If you add up the figures provided ,you don’t even get 33.4
million His proposal for improving health care was to possibly
e?q)and the eli^bilty reguirements for those people receiving
medicare or medicaid benefits. Of course he never mentioned
where the funding for such a eqaansion of these programs would
come from.
We need some type of basic health care insmance for all
Instead of attacking the Clinton pla>^
come up with a better alternative. Let us -
andtr^
to get beyond our own selfishness
to help those in need. The era
selfishness, and power is dead.
of 9^
gift” isn’t
the ‘^rfect prii
ausethere
^ When buying
^someone, then
thii^ to remembe
,-«9(j,2^^®ngandpurp
citizens to help contreri costs. It is when people do J
type ofinsurance and then get ill that costs us so much th^J
shifting to those (rf us that do have health insurance. Tb^.
as]ririn in a hos{rital may cost $6. Another misleading ^
pamphlet is that it states, "Not having insurance is
situation for most peofrie: 51% are iminsured for
months; 72% are uninsured for less than a year. If tl^ '
whogave the figures?Eveiydayyou pick upapaperand|w
more layoffs coming. Yesterday, Boeing said it
additional 3,000 p)ecple in addition to 17,000 previon^j
employees. No, Congressman Taylor, this prcrijlem ^ ^
away any time soon and something needs to be done «
honest, hardwixking petqrie with some type of
insurance coverage. This is the only way we can truly
andmakehealthcaremcM^accesibleandafibrdableto .
Instead of attacking the Clinton plan, fry to coto^j^
betteraltemative.Letusattempttogetbeyondourcrvvo
and truly try to help those in need The era of greed,
andpxjwerisdeadltwouldberefreshingifourCon^
had a gra^ (rf the facts that surround this complex iss^^ (I'
care and not just a bunch of meaningjess rhetoric. ^
better than that frenn our elected officials.
^J^meaningfiiLJ
® 8® is ine^qiens
it has to be fri
When consider
ik^^.nian in your
gift ’^fetiontohowmi
lih actual^ be us
is a key wc
“the
^oewtoys, reaclj
with now
Jaler. Give
’ lhat win last aiK
^RS
HILLCC