Newspapers / The Franklin Times (Louisburg, … / Feb. 13, 1968, edition 1 / Page 4
Part of The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The Frf7 Pu6l.vh*d ???>? Tu?vd*y A Thurtday ? gin Times *?...?? AN O* PrMtklMi CmM| Your Award Winning County Newspaper LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT Pueblo Crew Did Resist The hereditability gap just split another button. The Johnson admini stration. according to- a report out of Washington, is attempting. to keep se cret the fact that the ereiyof the I SS Pueblo did resist the boarding of their ship by the North Koreans. The report quotes from communica tions relayed to the National Security Agency just outside Washington while the battle raged. The 83-man crew repelled the Communists twice, but were overpowered on a third try after their guns had been silenced by the North Korean gunboats. The Pentagon says there is "no evidence" to support the story by Washington writer Paul Scott. But Scott says that "one confiden tial version of the hijacking now-cir culating within (he Navy confirms the ? three hoarding attempts." He then proceeds to relate in detail the three ?* attempts. He further states that "these and other secret details ... arc being suppressed on direct orders from the President to keep public opinion from being further inflamed over the violent nature of the attack." "An Vdministration Misider says the President is deeply concerned that if the full story of the crew's valiant resistance were to he made known now. it could trigger nationwide demands that military rather than diplomatic methods he used to try to obtain. the return of the ship and its personnel," Seott writes in Human Kvents, a weekly Washington publica tion. This comes as no surprise to any one. Reports coming from our national leaders have repeatedly been found to be either totally untrue or shaded to varying degrees from the whole story. Only the very simplest minded can possibly buy the weekly reports that while we lose a couple hundred men, the enemy loses several thousand. _ This is absurd. And it is equally contr ary to reason that our men would allow the seizure of their ship without a struggle. The pity of it is that we had sent (hem out there without any sent lance of protection against hos tile forces. The shame of it is that we allowed them to be capturcd and instead of taking action to free them, we go with hat in hand to beg their captors to please turn them lose. We are even about to apologize for being there and allowing ourselves to be captured. Now, add to this national infamy an attempt by the President of the l nited States to keep secret the fact that these men acted in a tradition of bravery and displayed great courage in the face of overwhelming odds. \s Shakespeare once wrote, "No glory lives behind the back of such." We couldn't have said it better our selves. - Switch-Over Unlikely Republican gubernatorial candi date, Jim Gardner. Fourth District Congressman has announced the kick off of what he calls "Operation Switeh-Over." The idea lie expresses is that there are thousands of "tired" Democrats in Kastern North Carolina gnawing at the bit to switch-over to the Republican part). ^Ve find this hard to believe. To be sure, there are disillusioned party faithful throughout the state. Many are indeed "tired" of the national administration policies and express grave doubt that the team of Johnson? Humphrey can carry the state in No vember. This, however, is not to say that Democrats in the Kast are disgruntled with local and Mate office holders to the degree that they arc willing to give up their franchise in party pri maries. There will undoubtedly be quite a few registered Democrats to xotc Re publican in November. Crossing parly lines or splitting the ticket, as it's called around here, has been going on for generations and this year is not likely to be any different. But far; registered Democrats to withdraw from the party and become registered Republicans when the Re publicans have nothing to offer in the primaries is unrealistic. Congressman Gardner would like to see diis'takc place. His best chance of defeating his Republican opponent, John Stick ley, lies in a switch over of Kastern Democrats, where Gardner's strength lies. As heated as opposition, to national policies might be amonf Democrats, the Republicans have thus far not offered any relief. Only in the guber natorial race has the G01' offered men seemingly qualified and many hold some doubt on this. It will be time enough to talk of a massive switch-over when the Re publican part^ can field capible can didates in all races and then give all voters a choice, not only in the gen eral elections, but a part in the pri maries as well. It is an identifiable marking of North Carolina Democrats that they argue among themselves. Some of the best scraps we've ever seen have come from among the party faithful and none would wish it any other way. Fighting among ourselves is one tiling, fighting Republicans is a don key of a different color. Congressman Gardner might be right. Thousands in Eastern Caro lina might switch-over. Certainly we find it hard to boast of being a Demo crat when we consider policies being handed down from Washington. But, we can boast of accomplishments in North Carolina under Democratic con trol. And ivc can see that thus far the GOP has not. offered men *vith qualifications equal to those being offered by the. Democrats for state office. It would bother us considerably if we could not cast a vote or 'be a part of the Democratic primary.- We find very little consolation in voting in the general elections for local offices already decided. So, it is that in ~ this corner, at least, "We *11 stick it out with the party that brung us. It may not be lily white, but it's the best we have. Fortune tellers wouldn't make a living if a lot of people didn't think they could actually read the future. ? * ? ? Freedom is a gift from the past, but it is not at all certain that it will be a legacy of the future. * * * * The Fra^tn Times IT* ??o y<ou ^HOLlL-D PO THE - CUTTING- [ 1 WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING Will We Have A Second Chance? It is very small wonder-that Americans are eating more dope., guzzling more booze, smoking more hemp, flying more solo LSD trips than all the other people of the world combined. We surely have more need to escape from reality than anybody in view. We seem damned and deter mined to do an even more glori ous final than is recorded in "The Decline and Fall of the Ro man Empire." More people are in mental hospitals, more beingr-' ^ milked by psychiatrists in this greatest nation in the world than in all the other nations of fhe world. And why not' We are being misled by a col- * lection of power-maddened poli ticians who have substituted com mon idiocy for common sense. We seem madly determined to destroy every virtue? spiritual, political, economic and cultural that gave us so much that we cannot digest it. We have our legions stationed in nearly every distant corner of this oval, evil old world; from the North Pole to the South Pole and on every meridian in between .... in every latitude and lon gitude, in the air, under the sea, on land, on ice and even in outer space we seek to extend the Pax Americana. And everywhere we go strife seems to follow. Uncle Sap Appleseecf sows wild, bitter seed that develop in to ugly plants that offer neither utility nor beauty to the soil in which they are planted. How could such a glorious plan, bas ed on the most beautiful dreams ever go so far astray? Is it pos sible' that we may wake up some morning and find that our psycho tic involvement in every affair known to mortal man is just a nightmare, and that reas.on-sweet reason does, indeed, exist and even flourish? How .cfeuld such a free-spend ing, warmhearted nation paint it self into such a vulgar corner, where it has neither friend nor definable foe?# Art all the long years of American spending and American planning and American charity and American well-wish ing leading us to the poor, mad house set aside for those whom the gods would destroy? Are we to die nationally and individually for having been too zealous on our miss TjCtn a r y dreams; to persuade the world to eat, to drink, to dress, to wor ship, to govern, to hate, to love, to sleep, to walk, to fight in our superior image? Isn't there somewhere still a spark of humility, and wit that can permit us one last fleeting glance backward at that saddest of all things: That which might have been? If we had consolidated our good fortune; weeded our own beautiful garden, educated our own lovely children, healed our own open wounds, trained our own eager hands, righted our home-grown wrongs, cast out our own local devils and offered the world an example rather than a mandate we could have, indeed, surpassed the Glories of Greece and the Grandeur of Rome, but now our soul has been torn apart and scattered in the wild weeds and dark jungles of this hungry, helpless world, which has asked us for help and we have respond ed with alms, and ill-tempered advice; rather than the mutuality which was needed. Will the grim hand of time and the cruel eye of time give us a' second chance to do some of the things we have undone and undo some of the terrible things we have done? -?? Jack Rider's Per sonal Paragraphs in Lenoir Coun ty News Will Another Agency Help i . Solve Economic Problems? The Nashville Graphic We had almost forgotten that a new government agency, known as the Coastal Plains Regional Commission, was created last ' year to promote the economic ?? development of coastal counties in the states of North Carolina South Carolina aid Georgia, in cluding Nash and 44 other coun ties in Eastern Nortlf (Carolina. But a news report the other day said the new agency has * now started to work with the objective of seeking ways to solve the economic problems af the area. Among other projects, the new agency will study the need for job training programs, more adult education, industrial de velopment antf diversification of agriculture. These are worthwhile under takings, to be sure, but what disturbs us is that there are aj ready numerous federal, state and county agencies making studies and carrying out action programs on exactly the same subject^. We hove job training programs, we have adult educa tion classes, and we are work ing hord on industrial develop ment and diversification of agri culture. Now a new federal agency comes along and proposes to do the same things. What is the Coastal Plains Regional Com mission floing to do that is not already being done? Maybe there are some bright new* ideas that haven't been thought of by existing agencies, and maybe a bright new federal agency is needed to think of them, but it seems to us that this is the kind of duplication and waste of effort that taxpay ers are tired of paying for and would like to see ended in the interest of economy and effi ciency. !a "COME THINK OF IT..." J by frank count I wish you'd look whose back. StUl on probation, but got a little more freedom for a change. We can get messages out now. Thought we might brighten your day by returning to these pages . . ; . Now, you can say "So What". With all the troubles In this whop-slded world . . . one more column certainly can't hurt . . . and while even we doubt that this one will have anything to add ... we take the posi tion . . . might as well. Russ Metz, publisher of the Owlngsvllle, Ky. Bath County News-Outlook (and you think you've got a curious name) says writing a newspaper column Is like having a baby . . . "It helps- If you're built for It, can stand a little pain and take the prenatal attitude that yours Is a labor of love". He also says (a talker ain't he), that a column Is like a pretty girl. He says It should have a pretty head (see above head and keep quiet) ... a name (see same above and do same as previously Instructed) and Russ relates as how his favorite girl size Is about 5 feet, 4 Inches (ours Is 36-24 36 . . . everybody to his own opinions). Russ says a column should have the proper size and you might note that this one Is about 36-24-36. This three-time national award winner also lists ten different reasons why we shouldn't be writing this column. We sub scribe to all ten. Among them are ... no time, don't know how, nobody will read It and I'm too lazy. Qualifications he also lists. . . .and we quote. . . "Anyone who was raised behind a pair of mules, or suffered through a depression and falling hair or tolerated a nagging wife and an Impatient banker has all the background for writing a good column". There now. . . he said It . . .we didn't. . .and If this Is all It takes to qualify. . .we qualify. Those of you hearty enough to read this far. . .are undoubted ly wondering when this thing Is going to get better. . . Well, the truth of the matter Is. . .It alnt. Metz says that when everything else fails. . r*'Try lying". . . So let this be a warning to you. . . Don't ever believe any thing you read here. He says "The worst that can happen is that your readers will run you out of town and you'll have to go to Washington to get a Job". . . a fate worse than death. . . But If he Is right about the baby business. . . We are per haps over the Initial pains. . . Since this column api>eared here sometime ago. . . before we got sent away. . .this is maybe a rebirth. . .sort of a second time around. . . The first trip resulted In our minister not speaking to us. .. our wife being afraid to leave the house and our's being the only kid allowed to carry a loaded weapon to school. . . . But you'd be surprised how many things of great importance go unnoticed now-a-days. This column may very well be like the male crocodile You probably didn't know that the female crocodile lays 985 eggs every October. This is important. .as anyone can readily see. However, the fact that the male crocodile eats 972 of these eggs every November Is even more significant. . . . You might say that you couldn't care less about female crocodiles. . . .or rfiale ones either for that matter. . . But, let me tell you one thing. . . friend, .if It wasn't for those males . . . .you'd be up to your ears in crocodiles. Come to think of It . . . that's pretty serious. Now Jesse Austin A. C. Snow In Releigh Timet Jesse Austin is moving around trying to get register ed to run for Congress. He's from Clayton but roomed with a friend in Goldsboro to establish residence there and is renting a ytoom in Raleigh to establish residence here. As someone says, if he doesn't get registered .soon, there are going to be a lot of historical markers in the future proclaiming "Jesse Austin slept here." "Sorry, ... I thought you were finished putting the groceriee In the trunk when I left the market"
The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 13, 1968, edition 1
4
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75