Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Sept. 21, 1969, edition 1 / Page 2
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Sunday, September 21. 1969 Page Two Rick Allen In A Tina Change, Talk It Over 77 Years o Editorial Freedom THE DAILY TAR HEEL mm fflatiu eOf A Word . . . Nine students at this university have asked Chancellor Sitterson, Governor Scott and Student Body President Albright to abolish the Daily Tar Heel because they don't like it. Normally we would judge such criticism as little more than that which you expect whenever you run a newspaper. But because these students have now been joined by Raleigh radio commentator Jesse Helms, and because their charges have been aired by his station's TV news shows without chance for us to reply, we take this opportunity to answer the charges categorically, and by so doing set down at least a part of DTH editorial policy. The following are their charges and our responses: Charge A: The DTH uses "obscene and profane language" in its editorial columns. Reply A: The obscene and profane words, according to the critics' exhibit, are "hell" and "bullshit." The editors do not believe these words are so shocking to the average student that they must be banned from the printed page. Phrases such as "he's a hell of a nice guy", "what the hell are you doing," "your term paper has too much bullshit" or "if you don't know the answer, try to bullshit your way through it," are in j Commontu'sageOofhthis campus. When the Daily Tar Heel uses these words, we do little more than write the language in its colloquial, generally accepted manner. And we don't think our occasional use of such words is justification for vicious Victorian attacks which seek to label the DTH obscene and profane. Charge B: The DTH endorses specific candidates in state and local races, especially in the recent Chapel Hill municipal races. Reply B: It is clearly within our tradition of 77 years of editorial freedom that we can endorse candidates. There is nothing new about this editorial staff doing it. There was nothing new about last year's staff doing it. We believe certain candidates are more interested in the students and the University than other candidates. And for the good of the student body and the University, we feel it is our duty to make our feelings known. The editor of the DTH was elected to make his known viewpoint (We have one too, Mr. Helms), not to suppress it. Charge C: The DTH has a consistent policy of distorted coloration in its coverage of campus news, particularly through its treatment of the activities of radical minority student groups as the only newsworthy events on campus. Answer C: The DTH provides coverage of any significant event or group on campus. Probably the most frequently mentioned organization in the paper is Student Government. Student body officers are elected by popular votes, some at large, some by districts. Also receiving frequent coverage in our columns are -the YMCA and YWCA, the Carolina Union, The Toronto Exchange, fraternities and sororities and the football team.. We do not think our coverage of them indicates that we treat "radical minority student groups as the only newsworthy events on campus." However, if you pick up any newspaper in the United States, you are likely to see stories about radical groups, strikes, disruptions, threats and discontent. As any other newspaper, the Tar Heel recognizes such activities as news. Regardless of the rants of people who think the activities would Todd Cohen Editor Bobby Nowell Dennis Benfield Tom Gooding Steve Enfield Harvey Elliott Art Chansky Managing Editor News Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor Arts Editor Sports Editor Ron Johnson Frank Ballard Business Manager Advertising Manager Dave Clark Night Editor this issue disappear if ignored, we will not suppress such news. The function of a newspaper is to print news, not suppress it from the readers. Charge D": The DTH has frequent editorial support for radical positions. Reply D: Our criticis have offered another exhibit here: An editorial which called for the Black Student Movement to receive Student Government funds. We do not believe this is a radical position. The BSM is a legitimate, recognized student organization. As almost any other special interest student group, it is made up of students with common aims and a desire to accomplish something. The students in the BSM pay tuition and fees just as anyone else, and just as anyone else, they have a right to receive something for their money. Getting something for your money, in our opinion, is not a radical idea. Our country was founded upon a free enterprise system based on that proposition. We think it is a much more radical position to say people shouldn't get what they pay for. For instance, it is radical to say that 15,000 students should be deprived of their c amptfS. 'newspaper because nine students don't like it. Incidentally, our "radical" position of endorsing Howard Lee for mayor (see charge B) turned out not to be so radical after all. A solid majority agreed he was the best man. Charge E: The DTH has "efforts to create news rather than reporting and analyzing it, through attempts to inflate minor problems and insignificant episodes into major issues and crucial events needful of immediate redress from the offending parties." Reply E: This charge, more than any of the others, summarizes the basic difference in philosophy and practice between the newspaper and its critics. The critics believe that dirt should be swept under the rug, that injustice should go unchallenged, that the students' newspaper should not fight for the students' rights. We find this reasoning nauseating. When the DTH editor campaigned for office last spring, he promised he would champion students' interests. In keeping that promise we have exposed high prices at the Book Ex, fought for better food and - lower prices at University cafeterias, supported Student Government's fight against double jeopardy and tried to keep Student Government concerned about representing students rather than just spending their money. It is true the Daily Tar Heel has created news on many occasions. There is nothing unusual about that. Anytime a newspaper seek an interview, asks a tough question, exposes scandal, takes a poll, calls for improvement or does anything more than sit in the office and wait for news to walk through the door, . it is creating news. The difference between a poor newspaper and a great one is the quality of its inquisitiveness, its fighting spirit and its principles. The Daily Tar Heel has a 77-year history of controversy. The criticism filed against us by the nine petitioners is welcomed. It shows we are living up to our tradition. Now that we've all said goodbye to Mom, Dad, our steadies, and the local draft boards, what the hell axe we going to do? We've been invoked, convoked, poked, prodded, Godded, housed, de-loused, roomed, doomed, steered, beered, weaned, cleaned, Deaned, registered and filled out in triplicate. We've had parties, reunions, setting up house, and a thousand new friends. We've seen the old friends and called up last year's girL The temptation is to slip into a rut, to study like docile cows during the week, memorizing and never questioning, and to party in a blind frenzy over the weekends. The temptation is to forget the out-dated and almost obsolete concept of thinking, to move from place to place and .from person to person in a daze, going to the same bar and saying the same things. "Hi! How was your summer?" "Great! How was yours?" "Oh, pretty good." "Well, nice to see you again ..." The thing to do is to talk to your acquaintances as well as your close friends. Find out what people are thinking and, doing. Get- involved in something. Change the things you don't like arid support the things you do. Force your- teachers to talk about issues and not facts, and then learn the facts on your own. Don't get bogged down. - " Our campus is in the midst of a great change. We are no longer a "great party school." When you say Chapel Hill, people no longer automatically think of a number two or three basketball ' team. They think of liberalism in the Soul Food By KEN RIPLEY I was standing in one of the many long lines around campus this week, and happened to overhear two freshmen discussing why they were here. I felt closo to the boy who said he came to have a good time, but I: was struck by his friend's answer. "I want to be a whole, person," he said, "and not just a chip off some impersonal block." I thought about this comment as I shuffled forward, and the more I reflected, the more I realized how many of us really want the same thing. Who doesn't, deep inside, want to be a whole person with a meaning to life and a purpose in living? In the past few columns I've written, I tried to establish the biblical definition of what a Christian is, and how a person can did give Steve Enfield Radical Vs. The Stuart David Smith came to Carolina from the mountains this year as a true grit. But then, all of a sudden, something happened which would soon change his life. He saw a literature table set up by the local radicals-in-residence and he talked with them about some of the world's biggest hang-ups. Letters to the editor should be typed and double-spaced. Letters should be typed on fifty-space lines if possible. All letters must be signed. All letters to the editor are we 1 corned by. the editorial staff, regardless of the opinions and ideas presented within them. Letters should be addressed to the associate editor, care of the Daily Tar Heel. conservative South, they think of change in a part of the country identified too long with stultified tradition. If you are a radical speak out. If you are a conservative speak out. But don't forget to listen. There will be strong political undertows at Chapel Hill this Dmyr qau THttiK THIS IS PIB ANpKnyjgg- maDJA UTrLB Too f3f?? Christiaiiity: ' Adjustin; become Christian. I've tried to present, in a reasonable fashion, the basic "good news" of the Gospel; that is, God does love us, Christ died and rose to reconcile us with God, and that we can have eternal and abundant, life right now. This is the bedrock ofany .biblical view of Christianity, and frankly, it is the foundation on which T write and will continue to write. But if the Gospel is the foundation, the underlying theme of life, there is more to Christianity than a message of "salvation" much more. There -is, certainly much , more to C hristianlty "than traditional "Churchianity," than shallow legalism, than staid piety, than the "Holiness Hour" on Sunday. There is much more to the mere definition of Christianity; there is, ultimately, also, the fantastic, relevant, fulfilling way in which, we can flesh out our definition and apply the love and you do blood ? He liked what they told him and soon he began attending all of the counter-orientation meetings. Young Stuie decided to become a do-your-own-thinger and sock it to the establishment. When the first wave of campus disruption and protest began, Stu was at the forefront and the police hauled him off immediately to the station house. He called Ma and Pa back home in the hills to tell them how the pigs had assaulted him but they didn't seem to care. "Let the bum rot in jail for all I care," his parents told the cops. Apparently, AP, UPL CBS, WRAL, and other such liberally inspired institutions felt the same way and young Stu soon was suspended from the university. After only two months as a college student, Stu found himself out on his hillbilly derriere. Although the above fantasy may be somewhat far-fetched, there is something about it which is most significant. There is no doubt that all hell will break loose fall. We don't want to ignore them, but neither do we want violence, division, hatred, or ignorance. It is important that intellectual tolerance rule our campus. A guy with long hair is not necessarily a commie rm Life O grace that God gave us to the way we live in and influence the society around us. In short, Christianity offers people the chance to develop into "whole people," living full, rich lives for themselves and others. Christianity offers a chance for people to live radically deeper lives with purpose and meaning, lives not based on emotionalism or superficial spirituality, but on a solid, intellectually respectable presentation and application of a Christocentric life within ourselves and society that is reasonable, involved, and motivating..,,.. , . ... .....Sr 7 In this sense, the "conversion" I wrote about before takes on a deeper meaning. To be Christians, to begin the process of change, we must by definition have an initial contact with Christ and be willing to accept not only His gift of salvation but also His demand for Lordship. But it is then that we feel a more profovnd experience of "conversion." The process of conversion at a fundamental level is not merely a moment in time, but a complete state of being a continual change. It is not an emotional entrapment to a doctrine or belief, but a learning, growing, day-by-day encounter and experience with the reality of Christ based on belief. Conversion does not mean we cease to think and respect truth, but it means that we are changed, transformed as we discover and obey the biblical truths of love, obedience, righteousness, self-sacrifice for others. A greater respecter of intellectual integrity, Paul writers nonetheless, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you might prove what is the will of God, what is good, and acceptable, and perfect." Christianity is not just a religious activity or profession of belief, especially not something that we say or do to impress people. Christianity does not exist only in the context of church or "spiritual gatherings." Christianity is not concerned with merely cleaning up people's language or breaking up romance. Christianity is not a noticeable "religious bag" where we drape sandwich on this campus and at Duke this year, be it over ROTC, cafeteria workers, academic freedom, or rotten oat meal. When the revolution does come, however, many things will occur that never happened last year. There will be a reaction from the university, for from the press, and from the people of the state like you never saw before. Blood will be free flowing, many will.be hurt, .and, above all, students will suffer. This is a gloomy forecast and it isn't meant to please. The foundations for it can be seen in reading of the events of the past year: the Wallace phenomenon, the billy clubs and MACE containers of the State Troopers who surrounded Lenoir, the popularity of Al Ctpp's denunciations of radicals, the rise of Hayakawa societies, and in the better street fighting atA&T. So, tread carefully beloved protestors and pugnacious panthers, for the establishment is out to crush you. World crew or a hold-over from World War One. If we can talk and understand, we can change our society and trudge a little closer to the illusive idea of democracy. Talk it over at the next bull session. boards around our neck that say "We Are Christians!" and point long, accusing fingers at people. Christianity is involvement with people and their needs. Full of risk and danger to pride and person, Christianity demands interpersonal honesty and love, commitment to social action and involvement, hatred of prejudice and injustice,' concern for the healing of moral, mental, and spiritual diseases, and a complete and consuming love for God first, and then for other people. Though many make their religion so, Christianity is not an escape from the woild. Frustratingly impossible for us who love ourselves so much, Christianity is putting into practice the same love towards other people that Christ showed us on the Cross. Noted theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote that religion "is the whole of man adjusting himself to the whole of life." The .task of being Christian, of living a Christ-centered life, is the task of becoming a whole man within the framework of and with the love and responsibility for "the whole of man." This year I want to write of conversion, of transformation, writing not only about the process of "becoming" Christian, but also the process of "being" Christians. I don't want to write about, nor personally believe in, a Christ who exists only in church and deals only with my personal spiritual welfare, but a Christ who lives within us and transforms our being into individuals who seek to involve ourselves and transform the world around us. One of my favorite biblical passages is the admonition of God to Jeremiah, and now to me: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord." To present how to know God and His Son Jesus Christ, to show how and why a Christian must practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness against the wickedness, hypocrisy, cruelty and horrors of our world, this is my purpose. To be a whole man trying to make whole the fragmented life around me, this is my goalnot only as a Christian, but as a man. Comments, questions, and related problems are welcomed. Send them to Ken Ripley, care of the Daily Tar Heel. The Daily Tar Heel is published by the University of North Carolina Student Publication s Board, daily except Monday, examination periods and vacations and during summer periods. Offices are at the Student Union Bldg., Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. N.C. 27514. Telephone numbers: editorial, sports, news 933-101 1 ; business, circulation, advertising 933-1163, Address: Box 1080, Chapel HU1, N.C. 27514. Subscription rates: $9 per year; S5 per semester. We regret that we can accept only prepaid subscriptions. Second class postage paid at U.S. Post Office in Chapel Hill, N.C. faggot. Talk to him. A guy with a cut is not necessarily a fascist
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Sept. 21, 1969, edition 1
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