Newspapers / The daily Tar Heel. / June 17, 1965, edition 1 / Page 5
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Page 6 .THE TAR HEEL Thursday, June 17, 1965 The Three Flags She ular The Tar Heel is the official news publication of the University of North Carolina summer school, and is published each Thurs day. Offices are on second floor, Graham Memorial, telephone 933-1011 or 933-1012. Subscription rates are $1 for both sessions. MIKE YOPP Editor Ernest Robl, assistant editor; Ann Streightoff, editorial assist ant; Ellen Robinson, Carol Weil Gulbeukiau, John Olsen, Re becca Berger, Ronald Shinn, Caroline Wells, Phyllis Kornov, James Chesnutt, Julia Parker, Paul Shaffer, Emily Folger, staff writers ; Bev Coleman, secretary. And Freedom Slips Away Another gloomy chapter unfolded yesterday in the General Assembly's growing book on the repression of personal liberties. The legislators passed a measure to prohibit dem onstrations in North Carolina public buildings, and made those who choose to express discontent publicly subject to penalty under law. : The law appears in direct conflict to First Amend ment provisions guaranteeing freedom of assembly. Its backers said it was not necessarily aimed at civil rights groups, but would protect people in the buildings going about their business. But it is easy to see that the law is squarely pointed toward civil rights demonstrators. Perhaps the lawmakers cast their eyes to the fu ture when speaker ban law opponents might employ this tactic to free the state from the oppressive gag. Then these people could be ejected from public build ings along with other "criminals" who seek equal rights for all Americans. It is obvious that the speaker ban law and the anti-demonstration measure share more in common than the dubious distinction of being passed during waning moments of General Assembly sessions. They both strike at the very heart of what this state once took pride in individual freedom. Birthday Without A Cake It's birthday time for the speaker ban law. It was two years ago, at the end of the 1963 Gen eral Assembly session, that the gag was hastily con ceived, hastily written and hastily passed just hours before the lawmakers adjourned. The infant gag has stirred controversy throughout the state during its short life but the issues it raises have never been debated on the floor of the Legisla ture. The only action lawmakers took this session was to create a speaker ban study commission at the re quest of Gov. Dan K. Moore. So the gag will at last receive a hearing, but the action may come too late as the loss of accreditation is hanging over the University's head. The study commission will soon be about its work, and opponents of the gag must, for the time being, rest their hopes in it. A strong case against the gag will be presented before, the. commission, and surely it will be found that the ill-conceived law is detrimen tal to higher education in the state. An unfavorable report on the law could be a real boost to the cam paign educators and other responsible citizens have waged against the gag during the past two years. Too often these people have met with cries of "communist dupe" or "red sympathizers" as they have sought amendment or repeal. But it would be difficult to hurl these vapid charges at commission members chosen by the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House. , So with an unfavorable report, perhaps some of the state's reactionaries will be made to see that the gag is indeed injurious to higher education and the prestige of this supposedly free state. Perhaps some benefits will come of this commis sioti the creation of which would not have been nec essary if forceful leadership against the gag had been forthcoming from the Governor. But the leadership did not come and the gag can enjoy its second birth day untouched. But for this occasion, there could be no celebration. nl KERRY SIPE Business Manager A Dilemma For Southerners By MIKE YOPP Tar Heel Editor FORT FISHER - Three flags were whipping in the stiff sea breeze and they were showing off their bright red and blue and yellow and white colors and each one had a dif ferent design and it was odd to see them all there at once and it made you think. Return Of McCarthyism: Witch-Hunt Is Forecast By ART BUCHWALD New York Herald Tribune The Republican leaders met last week in Washington and decided there was no sense pinning a Republican label on anybody running for local of fice. They encouraged John Lindsay to run as an "Inde pendent" for mayor of New York, and even former vice president Richard Nixon was quoted as saying that in cities where Democrats outnumber Republicans to the extent they do in New York "Republicans don't throw it into the voter's face, the fact that they're Re publican." The writing is on the wall and in a few years I can just see what will happen. Sen. Eugene McCarthy, a Democrat from Minnesota, will get up on the Senate floor and, while he waves several sheets of paper, shouts: "I hold in my hand a list of 153 card-carrying members of the Republican party in the United States gov ernment and I ask this house what it intends to do about it." "These are serious charges,' Sen. Manfield says, "and while I am against witch - hunting, I believe that if there are any Republicans in the United States government the Ameri can people should know about it." ' ' ' Sen. Everett Dirksen, who by this time is Minority Lead er of the opposition Whig par ty, also makes a statement: "This is a reckless attack on many innocent people, and the Senator from Minnesota is smearing people without giv ing them a chance to defend themselves. We haven't had any Republicans in the gov ernment since President John son was elected, and McCarthy knows it." Industry The Greensboro Daily News Two big national firms chose to locate in North Carolina because the "university com munities in the Research Triangle area furnish the kind of intellectual environment that leads to development and growth industries." That is the message directed to the General Assembly appropriations committees by officers of two of the nation's largest concerns. Testimony that they are coming to North Carolina because of the "really first class science going on at the University" was spoken by men who plan to employ thousands of North Carolinians and pay millions of dollars in taxes to the state. The companies are Corning Glass Co. and International Business Machines; IBM is now in the process of settling in central North Carolina, and so is Corning. The speakers were supporting a bill whereby $2,000,000 in state funds could be spent to pro mote academic research in pure and applied And the flag with 50 stripes in grade school except that it was the same one you saluted had grown two more stars since you began each morn ing with "I pledge allegiance . . ." and you sang a song af terwards and it was a stirring song but it was hard to sing. And you wondered what a flag was anyway and the Sen. McCarthy stands his ground. "I have it on highest authority that D wight D. Eis enhower never resigned from the Republican party and I have a photostat here of his party card." The Senate is in an uproar and the afternoon paper head lines scream: "Dwight Eisen hower Accused of Being Mem ber of Republican Party," "McCarthy Says Ike GOP Dupe," "Former President Named by McCarthy." The country can't believe it. McCarthy goes on television and says that Richard Nixon, George Romney, Ray Bliss, and Nelson Rockefeller a 1 1 have Republican backgrounds and he intends to prove it. The McCarthy hearings open under the bright glare of the television cameras. For a while the hearings go just the way McCarthy wants them to. But then he over plays his hand and on "Meet the Press" he says, "Mayor John Lindsay of New York City is a member of the Re publican party." Lindsay, outraged and aware that McCarthy made his charg es without Congressional im munity, decides to sue for libel for $1 million. The American Civil Liberties Union takes the case and, when McCarthy is unable to find anyone to testify that they knew Lindsay as a Republican, Lindsay wins the suit. This gives the Senate cour age to bring charges against McCarthy and he is censured by his peers. When this happens the witch hunt is over and from then on the American people stop look ing for Republicans under their beds. Another Consideration And The science at the University of North Carolina. The industrialists did not mention the speaker ban law and the possible loss of accreditation of public colleges and universities of the state. But the question arises whether they would have gone so far in locating in the Research Triangle area -if -they could have foreseen what is hap pening in the Legislature now. As President Douglas Knight of Duke Uni versity declared: The loss of accreditation would, be yond the universities involved, impair very gravely the developments which mean so much to the economic future of this state and region. This poses one consideration for the Gov ernor's commission, if it is found that gag law does indeed stifle the academic freedom of the universities, and if accreditation loss is a gen uine .threat. Can we afford to go backward in industrial development? teacher said it was a symbol of your country and you should treat it with respect and you wondered what this was any way this country. And sometimes you sang songs to the one with the rec tangular chunks but you didn't know what a witling was and how it could defame her. And the teacher said this is the flag of your state and you should have respect for it too and the scoutmaster showed you how to fly this flag below the flag of your country and you wondered if you should show quite as much respect for it. But the flag with the diag onal strips of stars was the one that puzzled you and you didn't salute it in school but you waved it at football games or charged with it at make believe ramparts and that flag carried a song with, it too and you liked to sing it. And you wondered what that flag stood for and you were told that it was the respected insignia of your region and that it represented duty and honor and something called tradition and everybody liked it so much that you did too and you clung to it and made it a part of your childhood. And no one ever explained to you what this tradition was and you had to find out on your own and you had to find out how one flag stacked up against another and where the dividing line was drawn on re spect to this country and this state and this tradition and it wasn't easy. And you thought about it as you grew older and you forgot about these flags because they were only symbols and you didn't need symbols because you had the issues right be fore you and the issues often clashed between this country and this state and this region. And sometimes these issues struck at your mind and some times they 'hit at your heart and you had to make decisions and you did but you had for gotten about the flags. And then you stand here on a half - destroyed wall of this earthen Confederate fort and see the flags together and you remember and you wonder if the decisions were always the right ones and you wonder out loud and the sea wind picks up the words and blows them together with a million others wondering the same thing. And you remember too much and you shake your head and you realize that those three flags so pretty and so peace ful represent the great dilem ma for every Southerner. Gag Law
June 17, 1965, edition 1
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