Page 2
Friday, November 12, 1965
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Opinions of the DaUy Tar Heel are expressed in its
editorials. Letters and columns, covering a wide range
of views, reflect the personal opinions of their authors.
ERNIE McCRARY, EDITOR
The Woes Of Elections
Confusion, complications and mistakes are to be
expected in the handling of almost any election. The
mechanics of the process are complex and extremely
difficult to coordinate.
The problems encountered in Tuesday's voting for
freshman, sophomore and junior class officers and
other issues re-emphasize a recurring awareness that
something needs to be done. The problems are not
new, and we have tolerated them long enough.
Some students have charged that there was no
ballot box at the Carolina Inn polling place until noon
Tuesday. Elections Board Chairman Alvin Tyndall
said the box was indeed delivered, but the students
who had agreed to man it did not appear. Of course
the chairman of the Elections Board cannot control
1 the actions of these individuals if they promise to
be there, he can do little but accept their word and
scramble for replacements if they break it.
His position is frustrating because he has no real
power in this matter. Tyndall said the Elections Board
will meet today to discuss these and other problems,
and he wants a recommendation that a law be passed
making it an Honor Code offense to fail to keep an
obligation to tend a poll.
We agree with the intent, but find the approach
so oppressively negative that most potential poll sit
ters will be scared away by this system. We suggest
that our well-heeled Student Legislature increase the
Election Board's budget enough to allow at least token
payment to poll attendants. Polls are required by law
to be open seven hours during election day. If the at
tendants were paid perhaps 50 cents an hour their in
creased enthusiasm and dependability would be well
worth the rather moderate cost. If there is just one
careless person, no matter how conscientious the oth
ers are, the outcome of an election can be seriously
affected.
Tyndall said a training program for poll tenders
is also being considered. We heartily endorse this aft
er watching this scene Tuesday:
A student came to a ballot box, pulled out his ID
card and asked the attendant which issues he could
vote for as-a senior. The 'attendant1 did not 'know,; so !
the student checked over the available ballots and de
cided for himself which he should take.
The system of registration is ineffective and al
most worthless. Now students sign a slip of paper at
the poll saying, "I have not voted previously in to
day's Student Government election, and am voting at
the polling station provided for residents of my elec
tion district. I realize that to falsify this statement is a
violation of the Honor Code."
If it were enforceable, this would be satisfactory.
But the plain fact is that sometimes these forms arc
lost, not filled out properly or deliberately falsified
If they are falsified there is almost no way of catch
ing the culprit.
Pre-voting registration might be the answer, so
that a person's name and residence could be checked
before he is allowed to vote. With just one polling
place per district, his name could be marked off the
master registration list and there would be no chance
of his voting again.
Increased use of computer card voting will elimi
nate most of the problems which regularly arise con
cerning counting room security, but the problem re
mains because all elections will not be handled by
IBM. The disappearance of ballots during or just
after counting is a common occurance. Such a large
group is needed to count votes by hand that it is al
most unavoidable unless many more monitors are
used.
In the interest of electoral fairness, accuracy
speed and efficiency, we hope these and other sug
gestions will be considered and approved - soon
fy Hatig (Ear
72 Years of Editorial Freedom
The DaUy Tar Heel is the official news publication of
the University of North Carolina and is published by ?:
students daily except Mondays, examination periods and &
vacations.
Ernie McCrary, editor; John Jennrich, associate editor; j
Barry Jacobs, managing editor; Fred Thomas, news
editor, Pat Stith, sports editor; Gene Rector, asst. sports
editor; Kerry Sipe, night editor; Ernest Robl, photograph- jS
er; Chip Barnard, editorial cartoonist; John Greenbacker,
political writer; Ed Freakley, Andy Myers, Lynne Harvel,
Lynne Sizemore, David Rothman, Ray Linville, staff :
writers; Jack Harrington, bus. mgr.; Tom Clark, asst. bus. x
mgr.; Woody Sobol, ad. mgr.
Second class postage paid at the post office in Chapel :
Hill, N. C. 27514. Subscription rates: $4.50 per semester; $:
iS per year. Send change of address to The Daily Tar $:
Heel, Box 1080, Chapel Hill, N. C, 27514. Printed by the
Chapel Hill Publishing Co., Inc. The Associated Press is jx
entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all j:-;
local news printed in this newspaper as well as all ap
news dispatches.
V TAK- Htec
T oMov, To The Editor
Criticism Of Inkling Criticism
Editor, The Daily Tar Heel:
All literary criticisms are a matter of
personal opinion. Therefore, different people
will often view the same work in a different
light.
In an article in the Oct. 31 DTH, Mary
Richard Vester gave her adverse opinions
of Fred Chappell's new novel The Inkling.
In defense of Mr. Chappell's book and in
answer to Miss Vester's article, I would
now like to express my own opinion of Fred
Chappell and The Inkling.
First, Miss Vester doesn't give any real
description of the nature of the main char
acters. It isn't enough to describe Jan as a
"weird boy with piercing eyes" who "likes
being his sister's protector." No mention is
made of his fierce self-will, which is in a
sense the core of the story.
It is also implied in this article that the
"inkling" belongs only to Timmie. Each
character, not just Timmie, as an "inkling"
an inkling of his own fate.
She also says that this book is short
enough to be "easily read in one sitting"
and feels that to spend more than a small
amount of time on it would be worthless.
The fact that this book contains only 153
pages has not much to do with the value
of its contents. Had Miss Vester spent more
time trying to appreciate the imagery and
perception of the author and more time
trying to understand the relationship be
tween characters in the book with real
people involved in the day-to-day struggle
for sanity and survival, perhaps she would
not consider The Inkling so complex and
incredulous.
The complexity of The Inkling is not so
much in Chappell's writing, but in the
minds of the characters into. which he is
able to see so vividly.
Chappell has a true gift of being abe
to see in the seemingly ordinary person
the complexity and "perversity" that has
always been in humans.
Chappell's use of "rare words" is not
from a "desire to impress;" he is im
pressive. These are the same type of words
one occasionally hears when talking to Fred
Chappell. More frequently, however, his
speech is casually peppered with "ain't,"
"he don't," and other choice expressions
which leads this North Carolinian to believe
he would have no trouble communicating
with another.
It is the opinion of this reader that not
only does Chappell communicate with those
of us from North Carolina, but to people
everywhere who are willing to accept a
book which turns the reader to himself and
compels him to question his own complex
nature.
Chappell "managed to have" his work
published because he possesses what an
author needs in order to publish talent
and extraordinary insight into matters
which we see as ordinary.
Miss Vester seems to feel that Fred
Chappell would be serving a greater pur
pose if he returned to farming or selling
furniture. I will agree that we would prob
ably have another pretty good farmer or
furniture dealer in our midst, but we would
be without one of our most talented, po
tentially great young authors.
Kitty Umstead
251 West Cobb
Letters To The Editor
PU Activities? Right Or
Editor, The Daily Tar Heel:
Here come the bravest and most patriot
ic young men in the country. They have
beards and long hair and carry signs read
ing "Peace" and "Ban the Bomb." They
want to know why our men are in Viet
Nam when they should be at home with
their families, happy, safe and contented.
These intelligent young men wonder if the
people of the United States do not realize
that the presence of our men over there
will only encourage hatred and promote
violent death. They want to know what the
government of the United States is trying
to do. "Are they trying to get us in an
atomic war?", the pacifist wonder. "What
about the bomb?", they ask in a low whis
per. They only want peace. The price does
not matter.
What would the forefathers of our coun
try say if they could hear, much less see,
these insipient and outrageous acts of
cowardliness and treason. Never would this
nation have grown to such proportions and
possess such integrity if such dastardly peo
ple had had any more influence. It is peo
ple like the "stupid little boys with the
beards" that ruin a country. W7hat would
the men who died at Valley Forge, Gettys
burg, Verdun, Pearl Harbor, Pork Chop
Hill, and even more recently, the Mann
Yann Pass in Viet Nam say to those who
are so willing to forfeit everythin just so
long as they can have peace? These people
do not realize what they are proposing.
What good is peace if one cannot enjoy
the happiness and comfort of freedom and
the knowledge that no matter what may
happen there is and there always shall be
a country like the United States that is
willing to take a position and stand by it?
We did not ask the men who died fighting
for the United States whether they wanted
to fight or if they wanted to die. There
would have been no need to have asked
because no one wants to fight and no one
wants to die, but there are some things in
this life that are more important than one's
own happiness and desires. Some things
like determination, love and sheer "guts"
make a man a man and a coward a damned
soul.
May the United States never back down
in the face of her enemies. May she never
lose her self-rspect and integrity. And
may God see to it that the dastardly scum
such as the Student Peace Union and other
such pacifist organizations never receive
anything but rebuttal and scorn from cour
agerous, upright and intelligent people My
one prayer is that never shall the daut
less spirit of Americans lower itself to such
a low and prostitited state as that of the
pacifist organizations.
Charles Stephen Myers
313 Parker
Editor, The Daily Tar Heel:
The SPU-niks are stepping way out of
line. I believe in free speech, but I also
believe in God: there is a difference be
tween freedom and license. We are a na
tion at war. We can no longer afford to
coddle irresponsible demonstrators whose
every word and action casts doubt on their
loyalty and our national resolve.
One of the most unprincipled assertions
Lenin ever made was when the said "mo
rality is what will advance the cause of
Communism." It is worth noting that the
SPU-niks are saying exactly the same
thing when they equate morality with aban
doning South Viet Nam to the NLF (Viet
Cong). Holy-Joe pacifist slogans inscribed
on crosses and raised like haloes over
Christ-like, hidden-persuader beards prove
only the SPU-nik's contempt for the intelli
gence of his would-be brainwashees, for the
SPU-nik "argument" flouts one of the cor
nerstone precepts of our Judaeo-Christain
moral heritage: the means can never justify
the end. The abandonment of millions of
Vietnamese peasants to the unhappiness of
life under Communism would be wrong no
matter how "christianly" we went about it.
Living from day to day, one may forget
how happy people are when they live in
freedom. We should remind, ourselves., ret
ligiously, for it is the freedom" of the peo '
pie of South Viet Nam that we are fight
ing and dying and bombing for.
We should remember as well that Chris
tian moral concepts were developed long be
for the nation-state system and the rise
of communism. Hence they are designed
more for interpersonal than for modern in
ternational relations, whose labyrinthine
complexities the church fathers could have
had no inkling of. To follow Christian ideals
unswervingly in the very unideal world of
power politics would be to jeopardize our
hopes for the just and lasting peace which
is essential for the ultimate triumph of
these very ideals. If Jesus reincarnated
himself tomorrow, he would understand that
our actions in Viet Nam are an expression
of our dedication to freedom. It would not
surprise me if He entertained our troops!
SPU-niks, then, should be drafted. All
talk aside, a man who won't fight when his
country calls is no man. This is bedrock
reality no rationalization can conceal. If
anything can make a man out of a-draft-dodger,
though, it's getting drafted! Espe
cially if my grandmother gets hold of him.
She's a sergeant in the Marines.
Bill Michaux
Editor, The DaUy Tar Heel:
UNC has had a tradition that divergent
points of view could be openly expressed
without fear of unfair recrimination or
character assassination. Through many
world and national crises this rule has been
honored. Now, with the Viet Nam problem,
the student body is being subjected to an
exhibition of democracy at its worst.
Implications have been made that liber
als are communists; that conservatives are
fascists; that certain groups do not bathe
enough; that the political science depart
ment is subversive; ad nauseum. Any ra
tional persons knows that none of these
charges are true, and consequently it is
doubtful whether they have too much influ
ence upon the student body.
w
The sad thing is that these mud-slinging
tactics are denying to the students a whole
some discussion of the legitimate issues.
The real issues are diverse and numerous.
Both sides should have an opportunity to
discuss them in a relaxed atmosphere.
Liberals have raised honest questions
about the morality and logic of our role in
Viet Nam. Is it our duty to oppose com
munism everywhere? Are we aiding in the
suppression of the desires of the great mass
of the Vietnamese people? The questions of
where obedience to law ends : and respon
sibility to one's conscience begins is crucial
ly important.
Likewise, conservatives have raised sev
eral legitimate questions. Are the tactics
used by Viet Nam policy protestors irre
sponsible? Are draft-card burning and
draft-dodging methods of protest which can
be allowed by our society? Are protestors
destroying the morale of American service
men and giving a false impression to Hanoi
and Peking?
And most important of all is a question
which should be of primary importance to
conservatives and liberals alike: Is the ma
jority so endangered that the right of mi
nority dissent should be crushed?
All of these, plus many others, are im
portant questions which should be the sub
ject of public discussion. Indeed, it is a sad
state of affairs when people need to be re
minded of this basic precept of democracy.
Marshall Lichtenstehi
ZBT House
Editor, The Daily Tar Heel:
Discussions on peace by its advocates
liberal and conservative have been both
asinine and immature. As a result, the
whole dialogue has been centered around
"odor," eccentricity and rhetorical finesse.
The SPU is judged more on the eccen
tricity of some of its members than on the
profundity of its ideas. Maupin's editorials
of Oct. 15 are the epitome of this immature
and irrational credo. The motive or at least
the effect of Maupin's criticism of the dress
of some SPU members has been to exploit
the immense intolerance we Southerners
share for non-conformity.
The SPU is not without blame for much
of the senselessness that has surrounded
the protests. Their naive and immature pro
nouncements are not good pacifism, to say
nothing of good sense. The tragedy of
"SPUism" is that it sees peace as a goal
to be attained by the mere cessation of
hostilities and by the rule of "love." To
think that peace is this simple is to engage
in fantasy and dream. The SPU misses the
point on another issue also. Some are naive
about the Communist role in Southeast
Asia. When one SPUer was asked, "What
if the Viet Cong take over South Viet Nam?"
His reply was, "So what!" This worries
me. Peace and freedom walk together and
where freedom is incomplete, peace is in
secure. If thy fail to see that a Communist
Viet Nam will not be peaceful and that to
surrender freedom for "peace" will not
bring lasting peace, then I would agree
that they are either intellectual eggheads
or "impenetrably stupid."
Anti-SPUers and protagonists of war
decry urgings of negotiation as appease
ment and "pacifism" as treasons. We must
maintain a human presepctive. War is not
progressive or productive. We must con
stantly ask ourselves if there are not other
ways to hasten the evolutionary process of
peace. We can't put all the blame for the
world's problems on the Communists. Let
us be willing always to criticize our policy
and examine our attitudes.
Not a single person on this campus is un
concerned with the problems in Viet Nam.
Thousands of us may be called to fight a
war we did not start in a world we did not
make. We must be able to discuss and eval
uate our attitudes in a sane manner. I
hope that the SPU or other groups that
plan discussions will hit at the central is
sues in a more effective manner. A low
level dialogue in Y-Court inevitably led to
immature dialogue. Unless we can save
honest debate, then free speech and criti
cism may be strangled on this campus by
intolerance and emotionalism bans
more "odorous" even ban the speaker ban.
Phil Clay
LETTERS
The DaUy Tar Heel welcomes letters
to the editor on any subject, particularly
on matters of local or University Inter
est. Letters mast be typed, double
spaced and must include the name and
address of the author or authors. Names
will not be omitted in publication. Let
ters should be kept as brief possible.
Fit?..??' right to "U 'or
length or libel.
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