page one/ the journal / march 20,1974
volume he,
number 23
(•UIIHAL
march 20, 1974
Senator Mark O. Hatfield
Court Rules ou
Firecrackers,
Elections Appeal
The Student Superior Court
heard two cases Sunday night, 17
March, 1974, one concerning
firecrackers and one appeal of the
Elections Board decision to
validate the February elections.
In the firecrackers case,
assistant Attorney General Keith
Shannon began the case by asking
for a contempt of court ruling
against one of the co-defendants,
who had failed to show up for the
case or notify the attorney
general's office that he would be
absent. Chief Justice Tom Duley
ruled that the student must
appear before the court the
following Sunday to show due
cause why he should not be fined
for his failure to appear.
The two students were charged
with throwing firecrackers from a
second floor Moore Hall window
a group of 13-and 14-year-olds
who were working with Project
in conjunction with the
Salvation Army and a group of
9raduate students.
The Attorney General's office
charged that the pair were in
violation of the UNCC code and
i^orth Carolina law by their
possession and use of explosives.
Security officer Fred Stewart,
'ailed by the Attorney General's
[^^f'ce, said that at the time of the
'ficident, about 12:30 p.m., he
JV3S making a routine patrol
behind Moore Hall when he heard
Hatfield/ Macquarrie
Speak At Forum
by charlotte porter
the explosion. Stewart hadn't
planned on arresting the violators,
he said, until they became
abusive.
Associate Attorney General
David Sturgis added in further
testimony that the young people
had been washing cars behind
Moore, and that there had been
witnesses to the act who refused
to testify in court.
The defendant present in court
pleaded guilty and called a witness
who substantiated his claim that
the firecracker was indeed
thrown, lit, by the defendant, but
that it had failed to explode and
did so only after being lit by a
person behind the dorm.
Taking the chair in his own
defense, the defendant assured the
court that his absent loommate
was innocent of all charges. He
further testified that he had no
idea how the firecrackers came
Into his possession.
The Attorney General's office
asked the court that the
defendant be found guilty, and
asked that the court recommend
definite suspension for the
remainder of the academic
semester.
After brief deliberation, the
court ruled that since they were
concerned with a precedent case,
the penalty of suspension was a
Continued on page two
Among the most exciting
intellectual events at UNCC this
year was the University Forum
program that featured two
speakers talking about the
anatomy of freedom. The large
group of people who hosted the
program deserve mention for the
work they and others did in
bringing the event to this campus.
These people include Mrs. James
E. Fogartie, Dr, D. W. Colvard,
Dr. Ed St. Clair, Donald M.
MacKay, Richard Butterfield, and
Dr. Earl L. Backman.
The morning's featured speaker
was the Rev. John Macquarrie. He
is currently the Lady Margaret
Professor of Divinity, and Canon
of Christ Church, University of
Oxford. He has been Professor of
Systematic Theology at two
distinguished universities on both'
sides of the Atlantic, and Is since
1968 involved in a leadership
position in the World Council of
Churches. Introducing Dr.
Macquarrie, Professor St. Clair
alluded to his wide popular and
technical writings.
The afternoon's guest speaker
was Senator Mark O. Hatfield.
Best known for his co-sponsorship
of the M cGovern-Hatfield
amendment to end the war in
Vietnam, Senator Hatfield Is
currently involved in
congressional work to curb the
distruction of air and water
natural resources. The first
two-term Oregon governor since
the turn of the century, the liberal
Republican from Oregon has also
been active in the legislative
removal of the draft.
Man, no longer at the mercy of
the adaptive forces of evolution,
asserts his independence of
nature. He now adapts his
environment to his own benefit.
Instead of the reverse order of
authority. While an animal Is free
in the sense of the “freedom of
the wild,'' the animal lives in total
biological determinism. Man on
the other hand. In a negation of
nature itself, has transcended his
biological nature and now lives
both determined (subject to laws
of nature and finitude) and free.
This freedom, by its very
nature, has no empirical
characteristics and is therefore
always a mystery and something
illusive. The full awareness of
freedom comes only in the depths
of decision. After the moment of
decision, the consequences of the
decision became the annals of
history. Hence the significance of
freedom.
Macquarrie compared a
decision done in freedom with the
Christian creation ex nihilo. As
- by george berkin
God created something out of
nothing, so too men create
something (a free action) out of
the "nothing" of freedom.
Foremost among the things man
creates is man himself. Man is
thu,s, according to Macquarrie, the
co-creator with God of himself.
Macquarrie then parenthaseed
by asking what evidence we have
for maintaining that man's
freedom is qualitatively different
from that of animals. He begins
by agreeing that we cannot
“prove" the reality of freedom,
because it is an empirically
oriented scientific something. But
freedom is the presupposition of
all arguments, judgements, and
moral decisions. A denial of
freedom dissolves these real things
to mere random happenings
instead of acts.
Macquarrie next drew from
several famous existentialists.
Kirkeguard identifies this anxiety
as the dizziness of freedom when
Continued on page two
BSU Protests
Sanskrit Article
Dr. Macquarrie began the
morning session by
acknowledgeing the difficulty in
making an analysis of freedom.
This theme is much talked about,
he said, but due to the illusive
nature of freedom, often its
understanding is left to the poets.
As an understanding of freedom
will increase that freedom, our
present search is well justified.
He said our first impulse
toward an understanding of
freedom differs from most
searches in that we define
freedom in negative rather than
positive terms. Free animals are
without cages, as free citizens are
without compulsions. Not part of
the empirical world, freedom is in
a sense nothing at all, rather it
implies open horizons. Thus
begins the paradox of freedom.
Leading the list of modern
philosophers whose ideas Dr.
Macquarrie incorporated into his
analysis, Macquarrie developed
Sartre's conception of the human
being as one who separates
himself from the world of things.
Amidst a general feeling of
TGIF the Sanskrit spring issue was
distributed Friday m.orning,
March 15. By noon all issues had
been recalled by the editor and
several hundred had been
confiscated by the Black Student
Union.
Contained in this issue was a
story by Bill Holder entitled
Fucking a Nigger on Saturday
Night". The plot involved the rape
of a black wornan by a small town
white man. The BSU was
offended by the material and felt
that the contents and implications
they carried outweighed the
artistic value.
A conference was Called at 3
p.m. in the Cone Student Union
for the Sanskrit and BSU to state
their positions. Dean of Students,
Dean Rash, and Associate Dean of
Students, Betty Chafin were
present to represent the
administration and '^keep the
meeting in order.
Dean Rash stated that the
administration would not attempt
to censor the media, but at the
same time, would not support any
act that would alienate different
groups on campus.
In stating the Sanskrit's
by susan cole.
position, editor Jeffrey Beam said
the story was not meant to
offend, "My own personal feelings
were that the story was problack
and that the black girl was raped
and that after that scene I felt
very sympathetic with that girl, as
much as a white person could."
He apologized for the
misunderstanding, saying that
perhaps the title was
unrepresentative of the story but
added that he would not support
changing the story.
In defense of their position the
BSU made a statement that they
would not try to censor the
Sanskrit but felt that Beam should
have added an explanation of the
story showing that it was not
meant to be racist.
After this statement the
conference was dismissed as the
BSU left the room. Member of the
BSU gathered several hundred
copies of the controversial
Sanskrit and burned them in trash
barrels in the middle of the
campus.
Editor Beam is working at
present on a distribution plan
which will probably be
implemented later this week.