Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / May 12, 1966, edition 1 / Page 2
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Ptgre 2 Thursday, May 12, 1966 Itp Satin ar Opinions of Tin Daily Tar Hiil an- nNtl in its editorials. All unsigned editorials are uriltcn by the editor. Letters and columns reflect only the personal views of their contributors. FRED THOMAS. EDITOR A Poor Showing 1 What part of twenty is three? Not a very large part when that's how many Stu dent Government committee chairmen show up to hold interviews for their committees. Interviews for positions on SG's twenty odd com .coittees started Tuesday. And what a start they got. There were plenty of interviewees but only one committee chairman. Yesterday's turnout was quite an improvement. Three were there. Student Government gets criticized day in and day out for being a Mickey Mouse organization that does nothing. Weil, chairmen, you've made your con tribution to the maintenance of this fine reputation. We suggest that President Bob Powell get a little life into his appointed chairmen. He picked them, and they're hurting his organization. ' Where Will They Park? Do you walk to the student union or carry your lunch? Silly question? It may not be if someone doesn't begin to think about parking facilities for the pro posed structure to replace Graham Memorial. And they should begin pretty soon. Right now plans seem to be decorated with profuse confusion. One "informed source" says that provisions have been made to include seven parking spaces around the building. But, in looking at the blueprints, we couldn't find that many. In fact, we couldn't find one. This seems to be the present train of thought among those who should be attending to the prob lem: "Well, of course, all of what is now Emerson Field will be available for parking when the building is completed." Are there any plans to pave this area, or for that matter, to definitely use it for parking, paved or not. "No, there aren't any definite plans, but the land will be empty. And it is already level enough for parking. Of course, sometime in the future that space will be used for building." What will happen then? "Well, like I said, there aren't any definite plans vet. but thev could remove t.Vif Tin Can it will Vtavo to be replaced in the future anyway and park in that area. That will be' just across the street from the student union. And if they wanted to build a park ing garage, the natural lay of the land would make it ideal." That could be done. A lot of things could be done. The State of North Carolina could legalize the sale of liquor by the drink. Chapel Hill trees could bear ten-dollar bills. And based on the amount of positive planning that has been done or at least the amount that anyone in the know is willing to disclose ei ther of these is about as likely to happen as is the inclusion of a reasonable amount of parking space around the new student union. It appears to us that this is in contradiction of the basic principle of having a student union. This is sup posed to be a place for the students to use. Anyone who has ever darkened the door of GM knows that the present facilities cramped though they be sel dom are flooded with students. The main reason for this, of course, is the out-of-the-way location of GM. When the building was erected, it was the center of attraction. All the stu dents lived right around it. An equally desirable lo cation has been appointed for the new union building. Most students will pass by it every day going to and from classes. But what about students living on south campus who would like to use the building at night? And even more painful, what about the 4,000 students who live off campus? Are they to be given no consideration? If the parking situation as a whole is serious, it seems to us that this specific problem is critical. We hope that someone will give this matter a great deal of serious reconsideration. Some people are quite concerned about this. We'd 4 like to pass on to you an analogy that we got from one such interested party: There are a lot of people around the University who would like to see no student cars at all. That was - the situation 100 years ago. But this is 1966 students do have cars now. Of course, even in horse and buggy days, I think they would have made arrangements for a few hitch ing posts outside the student union. Site Satlg (tar : Fred Thomas, editor; Scott Goodfellow, managing editor; I John Greenbacker, associate editor; Ron Shinn, news ed : itor; Barry Jacobs, sports editor; Ernest RobI, assistant : news editor; Bill Hass, assistant sports editor; John Jenn : rich, wire editor; Mike Wiggin, night editor; Jock Lauter : er, Jerry Lambert, photographers; Chip Barnard, art .ed itor; Andy Myers, Steve Bennett, Steve Lackey, Peytie Fearrington, Carol Gallant, Lytt Stamps, Alan Banov, Bill Amlong, staff writers; Bill Rollins, Sandy Treadwell, Dmmmond Bell, Jim Fields, sports writers; Jeff Mac Nelly, Bruce Strauch, cartoonists. George Kennan Involvement In Viet Nam Unfortunate (Editor's note - This is the second in a series reprinting the remarks on LS Viet Nam involvement made by former ambas sador George Kennan before the Senate Foreing Relations Committee.) From the long-term standpoint, there fore, and on principle, I think our military involvement in Viet Nam has to be recog nized as unfortunate, as something we would not choose deliberately, if the choice "How the hell can I study with so much work to do?" 1 Jt'cSSlse u i-- - 1 - I fcMM MM 111 MM 1 .3 David Rothman Investigation Of Bathtubs Needed1 For Public Welfare "We have come to recognize needed im provements in automobiles," the head of a Cornell University research team gravely proclaimed this week. Now, he said, we must accept the fact that the American bathroom also "needs a drastic overhaul." According to Theo dore Kira, this coun try's bathtubs are sim ply too dangerous to get into. In fact, he says, "No tub made to day permits a person to relax unless he hap pens to be a contortionist." Frankly, I'm worried. Americans have long trusted the bathtub makers to provide us with safe, reliable equipment; now, we find the bathtub industry is clearly avoiding its public responsibilities. Could it be that what this country des perately needs is a thorough investigation of the bathtub industry? I think so. Congress, in my opinion, should wrap up its expose of Detroit and get to work on a far more urgent matter: slippery bathtubs. Unlike Ralph Nader, I don't have any impressive files of statistics, but I do know this: Hundreds of Americans daily suffer loss of life and limb when stepping in and out of their tubs. Formerly, people believed the bathtub makers' claims that their products were safe. Now, however, the public can no longer be sure. Could it be, for instance, that the tub industry is emphasizing looks ahead of safety? Could the American pub lic be paying billions of dollars for gleam ing, modernistic tub designs when it in stead should have good, solid, foolproof equipment which will not fail anybody when he spins the faucet after a hard day at the office? And speaking of the faucets, are they being plated with too much chrome' Should Congress pass a law requiring that all tubs be equipped with anti-slip de vices at no extra cost to the consumer in the interest of safety? And what about the faulty tubs that have already been sold to thousands of customers throughout the na tion? Should such tubs be recalled to deal ers for maintenance work to wrinkle out the slippery spots? Are imported tubs even more hazardous than the domestic variety? These questions need to be answered ur gently. After Ralph Nader wrote his famous au to safety book, he found himself the target of some sexy blondes, apparently sent out by the auto makers' detective agencies who were intent on blackmail. I do not know whether the bathtub makers will also hire the girls upon reading this column, but if any are sent, I can tell them exactly where they'll find me after a hard day's work. In the shower. Heelprints A Yugoslavian baby doctor becomes one of the first communists to. speak at UNC. At last somebody whose profession en ables him to understand the motives behind the speaker ban's passage. Because he was an acting chancellor to begin with, J. Carlyle's becoming perman ent chancellor doesn't seem so dramatic. Pranksters place a 75mm cannon in front of the offices of Michigan State University officials. Too bad the pranksters didn't do this several years ago when Michigan pro fessors were participating in their contro versial Viet Nam aid program with the CIA then, they could have sent the weapon to Diem. David Rothman were ours to make all over again today. And by the same token, I think it should be our government's aim to liquidate this in volvement just as soon as this can be done without inordinate damage to our own pres tige or to stability of conditions in that area. It is obvious on the other hand that this involvement is today a fact. It creates a new situation. It raises new questions ul terior to the long-term problem which have to be taken into account; a precipitated and disorderly withdrawal could represent in present circumstances a disservice to our own interests, and even to world peace greater than any that might have been in volved by our failure to engage ourselves there in the first place. This is a reality which, if there is to be any peaceful resolution of this conflict, is going to have to be recognized both by the more critical of our friends and by our adversaries. But at the same time, I have great mis givings about any deliberate expansion of hostilities on our part directed to the achievement of something called "victory," if by the use of that term we envisage the complete disappearance of the recalcitrance with which we are now faced, the formal submission by the adversary to our will, and the complete realization of our pres ent stated political aims. I doubt that these things can be achieved even by the most formidable military suc cesses. There seems to be an impression about that if we bring sufficient military pressure to bear there will occur at some point something in the nature of a political capitu lation on the other side. I think this is a most dangerous assumption. I don't say that it is absolutely impossible, but it is a dan gerous assumption in the light of the ex perience we have had with communist ele ments in the past. The North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong have between them a great deal of space and manpower to give up if they have to, and the Chinese can give them more if they need it. Fidelity to the com munist tradition would dictate that if real ly pressed to extremity on the military lev el, these people should disappear entirely from the open scene and fall back exclu sively on an underground political and mil itary existence rather than to accept terms that would be openly humiliating and would represent in their eyes the betrayal of the future political prospects of the cause to which they are dedicated. Any total rooting out of the Viet Cong from the territory of South Viet Nam could be achieved, if it could be achieved at all, only at the cost of a degree of dam age to civilian life and of civilian suffer ing generally, for which I would not like to see the country responsible. And to attempt to crust North Vietna mese strength to a point where Hanoi could no longer give any support for Viet Cong political activity in the South, would almost certainly, it sems to me. have the effect of bringing in Chinese forces at some point, whether formally or in the guise of volunteers, thus involving us in a military conflict with communist China on one of the most unfavorable theaters of hostility that we could possibly choose. This is not the only reason why I think we should do everything possible to avoid the escalation of this conflict. There is an other one which is no less weighty, and this is the effect the conflict is already hav ing on our policies and interests further afield. This involvement seems to me to represent a grievous misplacement of em phasis on our foreign policies as a whole. Not only are great and potentially more important questions of world affairs not re ceiving, as a consequence of our involve ment in Viet Nam, the attention they should be receiving, but in some instances assets we already enjoy and, hopefully, possibil ities we should be developing, are being, sacrificed to this unpromising involvement in a remote and secondary theater. Our relations with the Soviet Union hav suf fered grievously as was to be expected, and this at a time when far more important things were involved in those relations than what is ultimately involved in Viet Nam and when we had special reason, I think, to cultivate those relations. And more unfortunate still, in my opin ion, is the damage being done to the feel ings entertained for us by the Japanese people. The confidence and the good dis position of the Japanese is the greatest as set we have had and the greatest asset we could have in East Asia. As the greatest industrial complex in the entire Far East, and the only place where the sinews of modern war can be produced on a for midable scale there, Japan is of vital im portance to us and indeed to the prospects generally of peace and stability in East Asia. There is no success we could have in Viet Nam that would conceivably warrant, in my opinion, the sacrifice by us of the confidence of the Japanese people. Yet, I fear that we abuse that confi dence and good will in the most serious way when we press the military strugle in Viet Nam, and particularly when we press it by means of strategic combing, a process to which the Japanese for historical reasons are peculiarly sensitive and averse. I mention Japan particularly because it is an outstanding example,, both in impor tance and in the intensity of the feelings aroused, of the psychological damage that is being done in many parts of the world by the prosecution of this conflict, and that will be done in even greater measure if the hostilities become still more bloody and tragic as a. result of ur deliberate effort. It is clear that however justified our ac tion may be in our own eyes, it has failed to win either enthusiasm or confidence even among peoples normally friendly to us. Reader Defends Berkeley In Letter To The Editor Editor, Daily Tar Heel: The "star of the West" located in Berke ley, California, known as "Cal" to those who live and work there, has recently come under all sorts of attack which has somewhat exaggerated any fair image of the University of California at Berkeley. It is a place where ideas flow the way beer does in other places. It is the "great mar ketplace" facilitating the interchange of opinions and philosophies. Granted the ex istence of a number of "protestors"; how ever, this is only a part of the idea mar ket. In perspective, one must realize the existence of almost 12,000 graduate students plus there are students from practically every foreign nation who attend classes at UC. This is not to say anything of the pres tige and capability of its faculty. The university's president has been criticized repeatedly for his defense of a university's role within a society. The Cal ifornia Legislature and Senate have threat ened to revamp the system of regency i.e. more political control, a situation well known in other areas. California is not a region easy to des cribe. The existence of verital cosmopoli tanism with the newer strain of conserva tism, all immersed in the pepsi-type gene ration which increases more than 1,500 per sons a day produces ample social and po litical tensions. Cal reflects this diversity and it also benefits from it. This does not mean that there are no disadvantages mainly size. Lecture classes for undergraduates can number up to 1,000 students which ef fectively prevents any but superficial con tact with some professors. Academic pressure is high at Cal, and work loads run heavy. Only the top eight per cent of high school classes are eligi ble to enter the freshman class. Overriding any disadvantages which do exist are the contributions that Cal makes to society by enabling the development of thinking citizens, and preserving that en vironment which is necessary for the gen eration of new thought. James A. Morris 127 North St. Letters The Daily Tar Heel welcomes let- $ g: ters to the editor on any subject,? particularly on matters of local or g University interest. Letters must be typed, double-spaced and must In elude the name and address of the : author or authors. Names will not be & omitted in publication. Letters should ijij g be limited to about 250-300 words. The jijj DTH reserves the riffht to edit for : lenrth or libel. Longer letters will be j$ : considered for "The Student Speaks" g if they are of sufficient interest. How- jx g ever, the DTH reserves the riffht to S nse contributed materials as it sees S fit :f: I&F0REU)E6O, I THINK I'D BETTER V r I 60IN6 TO Mi$ WO - . . t I I ,. , f fffiftgw Msi TTmiS IS TMES V- NOTHIN BUT THE 'APPY I I (OlTOUTOFlT) I P SftCu. a (ViFE, PEACES ni -T-f . P Si -! I S-2. r-!r ', f
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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May 12, 1966, edition 1
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