Newspapers / The Franklin Times (Louisburg, … / Jan. 7, 1969, edition 1 / Page 4
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The FraMjth Times Pwbl??t?t4 iMff Tu?t4?y A Tf,uftd?r br,M, AM Of PrwfclM C??rt) Your Award Winning County Newspaper LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT Tragic Incident Every day's newspaper reports some unhappy event. None lately, however, strikes us as being as tragic as the report of the 13-year-old Raleigh boy who shot himself in the chest last week to keep from going back to a school he did not like. The youngster is one of "two or three" white students in a school with an enrollment of 950 Negro children. He had stayed home "two or three" days before Christmas, according to report, and a Negro truant officer had called at his home and informed his mother that the boy would be placed in a training school unless he returned. The boy reportedly told his mother he "was going _to do something to himself rather than go back to school". He then went into his bed room and shot himself with a .22 caliber rifle. Fortunately, he is still alive although in serious condition. His family had recently moved to Raleigh from Charlotte and just be fore the incident, the latest in a series of transfer requests by the boy had been denied. This young boy moving into a new community; faced with making new friends and becoming adjusted to a new school found his situation im possible. If this incident doesn't raise questions across this country, the day is dark. We Americans are smart enough to send men to the moon but we don't have enough, sense to educate our own children. Schools have but one purpose. S.mply and truthfully put, that pur pose is to train a child to become a self supporting adult. We call it giving him an education. We cloth them to keep . them warm. We feed them to nourish their bodies. And we even plan extra curricular activities and programs to keep them in school. Then we send them where they dpn't want to go. We are raising a generation* of uhhappy children. Someday, they're going to be the generation of unhappy adults. Raleigh school officials should transfer this youngster and any others in like situations without any delay what so ever. If HEW ^or any other federal agency doesn't like it, send them the boy's rifle. Tragic as the self-inflicted wound is, the real tra gedy lies much deeper. The people of this country have allowed faceless bureaucrats in Washington to decide what is good for them and what they, deem good is not always the best. The parents of this young boy know better than anyone else what is best for him. They should have some say in where he goes to school and with whom he goes. The same is true of the Negro students who find them selves in predominantly white shcools against their wishes. Unless the child is satisfied, there is little he or she is going to learn in any school. I We believe most parents would chose to keep their child at home instead of subjecting him to such misery as apparently was suffered by the Raleigh youth. The truant officer would have to carry out his threat, but most would suspect that he'd need a little help in moving the child. A late report says that if the youngster survives, a Raleigh business man will pay the tuition to send him to a private school. The businessman wishes to remain anonomious, but he deserves a great deal of praise. How ever, this is not the answer. It may relieve the situation for this unfor tunate youngster, but there are thousands of others just as unhappy. Hopefully, they will not show their feelings as did the Raleigh boy, but the danger is there. Maybe someday they can forgive the adults for what is being done to them. National Disgrace The Courier-Tiroes, Roxboro, N. C.. Adam Clayton Powell, ?? ' the Harlem Hustler, sneered at the U. S. Htuse of it'ipiesentatives iasl week, and the House ? cowered. Pardon the expression, but that's one hell of a way to start a new year! Yes, the House has voted to seat Pow^ ell despite the fact the man misused at least $40,000 of our money padding pay rolls aud financing his own private ex cursions to Bimini. Oh sure, Powell was lined $25,000 (-to -be deducted from his monthly pay {in installments) 1 and stripped him 0f his seniority before it al lowed him to take His seat in the 91st Congress. Big deal ! Then tnere's the crowning "punishment" Powell may be denied his plush office in the Rayburr Office Building. Now, doesn't that do your heart a world of good ? Little did we realize all these years that integrity, too, could be purchased on the- installment plan! The House action against I'owcM is .something, akin to dealing with a naugh. ty child by denying the child his allow ance for a week and making him stand in the cprtief for an hjjbr. It's just as in- * , -effective. You know, it's really ironic, "Here's a man who can misuse $40,000 in public funds and get away with it. But let an average citizen miscalculate and come up $20 short on his federal income tax return and the Department of Internal Revenue will have convulsions until il gets the poof guy's scalp, plus his 20 bucks It really makes you wonder whe ther someone shouldn't remove the blind fold from Justice. The seating of Adam Gayton Powell last week is a national disgrace of the first order. Excuse us -while we get sick! The Franklin Times Established 1870 - Published Tuesday* & Thursday! by The Franklin Times, Inc. Bickett Blvd. Dial OY6-3283 Louisburg, N. C. CLINT FULLER, Managing Editor ~~ ELIZABETH JOHNSON, Business Manager NATIONAL EDITORIAL Advertising Rates TX7~1 ASSOCIATION Upon Request 1969 SUBSCRIPTION RATES In North Carolina: Chit Gf state; One Year, $4.64; Six Months. $2.83 On* Yew, $5.60; Stai Months, $4.00 Three Months, $2.06 ' Three Months, $3.60 Entered at wcond dan mail mstler and pottafe paid it the PtwTOfBi-r at 2U*tJ ! ! " *' i y.w. vxlf You Want To Know Who We Are, We Are Gentlemen From Hong Kong!" WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING A Reputation To Enhance In Kennedy's New Role ; I ' / ? THE COURIER-TRIBUNE. ASHEBORO, N. C ELEVATION of the last liv ing Kennedy brother to a pos ition of leadership in the U. S. Senate's Democratic majority has greater portents than might be evident, ?.en. Edward : Kennedy's victory, as majority whip, de feating the unpopular and er; ratic Russell L?ng of Louisi ana. puts him in the lime light for at least the first two years Of Richard Nixon's presidency. t As whip ? a workhorse job ?Kennedy ranks second only to majority leader Mike Mansfield (D-Monit.) and cer tainly will have a ready-made press following j rivaling that of colorful minorUy leader E verett Dirksen (R-I1U, lately of recording fame. Political pragnosticalors may wax freely about the likelihood of the Massachu setts senator eventually suc ceeding Sen. Mansfield as majority leader. The Montana senator has ventured ex pressly negative opinions a-~ bout the job in the past. Though the 36-year-old Ken nedy has served in the pres tigious upper chambet, on ly six years, precedent al-. ready establishes an avenue' Uor his early advancement. For it was none other than Lyndon Baines Johnson; then a freshman senator from Tex as. who ascended to the ma 'jorily leader's post in less than four years. Elected to office in Nevember 1948, Johnson was the Democrat Party's primary legislative spokesman by mid-1953. Quite a rapid pace Kennedy's flair for Back stairs negotiation, the hall mark of an effective legisla tor, is as well established as his obeisance to the Senate ."inner circle" which his late brother Robert usually er. tlamed Consider then that then Sen. Johnson finagled a ma jority leader's office into a. major presidential contender .in less than seven years. De lete the Kennedy juggernaut from that particular year and denying the nomination to Johnson would have been al most impossible. The opportunity is unlimited for Kennedy. ; It not only presages much for him personally but a more activist role for the lib eral-moderates than had been otherwise forecast. Generally, it had been regarded as a more conservative Congress yet both parties chose more 'liberal' leadership this year when offered the alternative of choosing representatives of the mossbacks (i.e. Long for the Democrats, Roman Hrus ka (r-Neb ) fo^ the Republi cans. Pa. Sen. Hugh Scott is Kennedy's counterpart for the minority Republicans in the Senate. No other stars blaze on the Democratic horizon save Ken-, nedy. Sen. Edmund Muskie, the. vice presidential choice from tiny Maine, is well re garded but unlustful of pow er. He deferred readily to the junior Kennedy. A Kennedy Muskie ticket for the Democrats in 1972? The Nixon administration will be hard pressed to main tain momentum against the ambition of the youngest, and most politically packageable of ?U the Kennedy brood. Top Hats IWCOKAIWG $Ofi SCOTT... I ! OUTGOING GOv?*vK>?, MfcW BAN * J OF IT..." by frank count As most of you faithful readers know, old Frank has to rely from time to time on reliable sources for some of his information. Fact is they're stool pigeons . . . and they may not always tell it exactly like it is. I say this because I know ? every reader of ?his column likes to keep confidence in what is related here. This is the way it was told to me ... I just don't ever go to Raleigh . . oh, well once in awhile when the Governor needs some special advice or the feds call. * ? This crowd was going to the inaugural ball. Fact is. they did go. They didn't all get back . . but they all went. Two couples rode in one car and two couples rode in another car . . . (The second use of the word car could be questioned). ' The couple riding in car 2 begged the couple driving car 2 to l?t them drive. "No, sir", said the male member of ihe driving couple, "I wouldn't hear of it. My car is already heated up and ready to go." He had drove it from a place called Pilot. He didn't need to go through Pilot . . . fact is. he didn't need to come to Louisburg (and he hadn't oughta either) The report 1 get said he jnst wanted tc^be seen dressed up. Car 1 made out alright. It didn't have much of a healer on - . it, but it would at least run. Car 2 might have run better if it had had a driver. They managed to get both cars to the ball .i alxyjt the same time. Things were going pretty good up to this point. Everybody was half frozen by this time . . . hul other than that things were going to everybody's satisfaction. Inside . . . where all the wheels were seated .... and where ' everybody could see them, what happened? Driver of car 2 embarrassed the whole bunch . . . that's what. Right in the middle of the festivities, his neck-tie fell off! Firs! one he'd ever worn and the scotch tape came off. There he sat . . . Iiig as life . . . with a bare neck. Now, don't you know that was embarrassing. But the worse came wh.en he turned I lie iadv over in the chair looking onibe floor for the tie. That aluiosi wrecked the whole inauguration . . . and that's when the whole ? bunch ran out of the place, including his wife and left him all alone. There ain't no way to make this story short. You just ? wouldn't believe ail the things . . . you ain't gonna believe the things I can print here. I know you wouldn't believe all of it. The two cars left the ball . . . with the occupants, of course. Driver -2 was still grinning. He always grins. Something wrong with his mouth . . . Somebody tolid me that . . . forget who it was. He rode downtown ... he stopped at the Sir Walter . . . drove off; stopped by the Carolina . . . Here's where some of the girls got into the act. They claimed the steps disappeared after the first floor . . . and this was still early iirthe night . . When the HighwaytPatrol let them out of the hotel . . . Car 2 decided it had had it with the driver. It wouldn't budge. Finally after-several kind words of advice to the motor and other scattered ' parts, the old machine decided it might be better to move on. Smoking, jumping and skipping it left Raleigh . . .but not for long. Driver 2 with Car 1 dutifully following all over Raleigh stopped at several other eating places . . . but did not get out and,did not go in. At one point, according to the stoolie he was three miles from Louisburg. He finally ended up eating at > the fairgrounds on the other side of Raleigh. His group got fed first and laughing heartily at group 1, they gaily skipped out of the eatery . . . leaving the bill for group you- know- who. But . . . live the good clean life and all things . . . (well most a)l things) will sooner or later come to you. Crusing along . . . (the heater was working a little by then) car 1 came upon a pathetic scene at Royal. Car 2 was sitting with the hood up along the road, driver of car 2 wis standing alpngside waving a white handerchief. It was 10 degrees out there where he was. Poor fellow. Hope he didn't catch his death. . . LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Editor: I have been told that law is above freedom of utterance. And I have replied that no one can have wise laws nor free enforcement of wise laws until there is free expression of the wisdom of the people and, alas, their folly with it. But if there Is free dom, folly will die of Its own poiaon. That is the history of the race. I've also been told that freedom of utterance is not for time' of stress, and I replied with the sad truth that only in tiro of stress Is freedom of utterance in dang er. No one questions H in calm days, because,. It la not needed. And the reverae is true alao; only when free ut terance Is suppressed is H needed snd when it la needed, It la moat vital to Justice Peace is food. But If you ate interested in peace through force and without dlscuaion, that Is to say, free utterance decently and In order ? your interest in justice is very slight. And peace without jus tice is tyranny. This state today is in more danger from suppression than from vio lence, and in the end suppre ssion actually leads to vio lence. All things considered, we can very well say that violence is the child of su ppression. Whoever pleads for justice helps to keep the peace; and whoever tramples upon the plea for justice, temperately made in the name of peace, only outrages peace and kills something fine in the heart of man which was put there when wa got our manhood. And let me say when that is killed, brute meets brute on each side of the line James R, Barker Eastt?K<*n St.t Frankllnton. N. C. I
The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.)
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Jan. 7, 1969, edition 1
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