Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / March 1, 1970, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page Two mf it ifujtr 1kii out llcdm'r 1 VV arfare? is letiiam f r 7'V ftw.v o editorial Vtccdnm HH 1 1 aiifijlii hat Chicago Trial Set Tone For Reactionary Politics The injustice of Judge Hoffman's trial in Chicago is spreading, so that his efforts and function in that trial were not in vain. The stiff, unprecedented contempt sentences which he imposed on the defense and their counsel has bred similar acts of prejudice in the land. Governor Reagan of California has asked the state attorney general there to investigate whether William Kunstler, attorney for the Chicago Seven, had crossed state lines to incite a riot when he spoke at the University of California at Santa Barbara Wednesday. At that time Kunstler addressed more than 5000 students and exhorted them to make the defendants at the Chicago trial a symbol. "I think we have to show the so-called establishment a voice that's strong and clear and then they'll have to judge their future course accordingly," Kunstler said. For that statement, Reagan is going to have Kunstler investigated as to his motive. It is not difficult to analyze the situation. The Chicago trial was a tool used by the defendants to publicize a political point of view.' That they we're successful was due primarily to the inability of Judge Hoffman to behave himself as an objective, i-H:vi representative of justice. The defense was in no way vague i.r sly about its motives. Hoffman w:s just as obvious as the defense, although he sought to mask his actions and motives by using the law. In effect, his handling of the trial was just as political as the action of the defendants. Now Reagan has taken up the reactionary- cause, joining the ranks of Hoffman, Vice President Agnevv, Sen. Stennis, and the like. Agnew has made a name for himself by jumping on every event which can be milked for its value to the Slowly, But Progressively, Visitation Policy Changes The new visitation bill passed this week by the Student Legislature is a step in the right direction. It is about time the individual dormitories and houses should have the right to determine their own policy, regardless of the in loco parentis attitude posed for so long by the University. The University presumes too much when it takes upon itself the role of moral protector of the students. The fact the Dean Cansler has come so far as he has in three years is a sign of some kind of success on the part of progressive and realistic thinking students." In the fall of 1967. Cansler expressed his determination to prohibit co-educational visiting let alone housing. Now, at least, he permits some visiting, and in the case of Project Hinton this year, and Morrison next year, housing. However, that the University is meeting the students a small part of the way is not enough. The in loco parentis attitude still exists to a great degree. Students are permitted to visit in one another's rooms, but the hours are limited and such petty regulations as the "Open Door Rule" still exist. Todd Co Ken Editor Harry Bryan Laura White Bobby Mowell Mary Curch Art Chansky Vanagir-g Ed-tor News Ed Assoc3! Editor Arts Editor Sports Editor Bob Wilson Frank Stewart Business Manager Advertising Manager Peter Hatch Night Editor this isue reactionary cause, and milking it. He condemned anti-war protestors, he condemned draft evaders, he condemns "the whole damn lot" of disaffected youth. Simply, he condemns what the reactionary, silent, mediocre masses of America want him to condemn. Stennis also used the Chicago trial for political meal. He went even further than Agnew chose to go. Stennis wants a constitutional amendment to say that under certain acts a person would forfeit his right to a trial. And now Reagan has taken up the cause. Kunstler, a symbol of the victims of injustice, offered the Santa Barbara audience a quiet but serious plea, to try to do something about political repression. His reward is that California's reactionary governor wants to have him investigated for crossing state lines to incite a riot. The Hoffman-Agnew-Stennis-etc Doctrine? of using , law and government to write a new kind of politics into our society is becoming a political and social success. The mass of prejudiced Americans is responding well to the bigotry of these . political leaders. The . American ideal of justice and law, however, is going down the drain. This trend into the gutter is going to continue for as long as people like" Hoffman and Agnew and the rest are permitted to remain in positions of power. And mere dissent does not help educate the great mass of Americans who are convinced that the HoTmanesque politician is a great man. That mass has to be educated. But the educating process does not happen all by itself. The only thing that moves is that which is moved. Humans can do things only if they act. Immobility is generally a weak political means of achieving . a desired political end. " Enough said. The new legislature bill -seeks to do away with some of these conservative feelings of the University. Needless to say, the' administration is probably going to put . up some kind of a fight to water down the proposal. That, for one thing, is ironic, because the proposal itself is not as liberal . as it could be. The ideal situation would be to permit students, as opposed to dormitories, to decide what kind of visitation policy would -exist. Why, for instance, should one student be denied his privileges if the rest of the dorm is opposed to them? A student's room should be his own castle, not that of the dormitory' as a whole., But apparently the legislature decided such a progressive policy of giving the individual the right of self-determination was too much to ask for, . or to expect from the University. In any event, we urge Student Body President Albright to sign this 'bill. And we hope that those responsible individuals in the administration see clear to approving the policy as approved by the Student Legislature. Odd things have happened on the wav to wherever the Vietnam war mav be going. More Americans than at any other wav time have come to question the validitv of this one. They have taken a look at the record, watched events unfold, seen changes, challenged this war's purposes, doubted the need, protested the price and raised an issue new to American wars: Maybe there are bad as well as good ones. .Maybe it behooves a citizen to make a judgment of his own on this with what he hears from larger groups. Maybe even a dissent-in conscience is compatible with loyalty and love for one's own tribe. Another moral issue rarely felt in past wars struck home in the grim, inconclusive Green Beret case. When military forces quietly eliminate a spy caught spying on them as well as on the enemy is this a routine, legal act of war? Or is it murder a crime for which someone must answer in court? Recently another little-publicized event in the annals of war has shaken patriotic multkudes. Americans in uniform committed massacre upon civilians of a primitive village old people, men, women, children in the kind of atrocity conceivable only, up to now, on the part of an "inhuman" enemy. Again, new stings of conscience. Not. Ken Ripley Soul r OO I'm told that today Christian unity is becoming the "thing to do." The newspaper keep reminding me of the church's proposed union. "World" councils abound, passing their resolutions and arguing over form. Ecumenicalism is the rallying cry of today. I s e r i o u s 1 v 1 question if such ''unifying'' movements really serve the purpose of unity; somehow, changing a bureau cratic structure from a lot of separate, disorganized, doctrinallv J - f -it 1 t1 Lt confused, and increasingly irrelevant church institutions into one institution will help matters much. The basic sickness in the church from doctrinal haziness to institutional strangulation still remains. And so does the need for Christian unity. There, seems to be something wrong with Christian unity when an organization can sponsor a meeting on Christian unity, not invite several of the church centers, be turned down by one center, and schedule the meeting in conflict with another Christian organization. It wasn't-the kids' fault, I know; there were problems. But it still happened. And a good talk on unity was limited to only two of the Christian groups on campus. It's easy to understand why there isn't much cohesive unity among Christians. Christians, like so many of us, happen to be human, too. And the Church (meaning all Christians) has been confronted and torn by several major issues, including: Christian involvement, denominational jealousy, .doctrinal differences, and the shifting interpretations and emphasis on morality. The argument over Christian involvement has generally dealt with the split between advocates of the "social gospel" and a more fundamental gospel. Denominal jealousy has usually been a matter of pride and contempt mixed with outright jealousy of the "success" of one group over another. Doctrinallv, the church has been split among the new theologians and, again, a more fundamental - traditional interpretation. The New Morality continues to be debated. rour' it ii .but. it nasural to war no matter who or when. an easv up-hot of the siormy emotions and the dehumanized system that blinds men into armies at war; Bfacl statues on hundreds ot thousands of deaths in previous wars have failed to discredit war. The 40.000-p!u fatalities among Americans in this one stir resret. but few new insights. Not even six million deaths among the Jews beset by Hitler's Nazis taught the world a lasting lesson about war. But now. in the flow of a long, unsatisfying, jolting war in jungles far from home, questions, doubts, debates arrise a kind of moral re-inspection. It is painful and depressing, but the promise in it mav at last deliver attitudes and insights other wars have failed to spread. How? Bv building on the action of a President of the United States in unequivocally renouncing any future use of a vicious tool of war bacteria and germs no matter what an enemy may do with these. By nurturing the confidence that small steps, one by one, by pairs of rivals or by blocs, can cover incredible distances. This was what the disarmament talks in Helsinki, on the limiting of means for nuclear catastrophe, were really all' I don't have enough room this year to handle all of the major problems infecting Christianity today, though I hope to be able to tackle some of them later. But the basic question still comes down to a matter of what Christian unity is, and how can we come together as "the body of Christ." The Bible emphasizes time and again the need and nature of Christian unitv. "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, so it is with Christ," Paul writes in Romans. "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and all were made to drink of one Spirit." The Bible says that God sent Christ "as a plan for the fullness of time, to unit all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." ' Somehow, as I look at the different churches and their denominationalism, as I see other Christians exist in discord with each other, as I look at my relationships with other Christians and my attitudes toward other viewpoints, I tend to think we Christians have blown unity. Many Christians have neglected to exist in "unity" with God, and the biggest way it Shows is that we've Letters to the Editor In venrewer.in To the editor: ' . A small observation from a, student currently living in one of the high-rise dorms on the South Campus: if the University decides to discontinue the food operations in Ohase and Lenoir, I will find it most inconvenient to live on South Campus next year. The advantage of having my source of nourishment within striking distance of my living quarters will worth the extra expense of, say, Granville Towers. I can't believe that I'm the only student in this position; I think that even a student with a car will find the above reasoning forceful. So if the University is having trouble keeping the dorms full, the to; do TV -8v stressing how shadowy a U: et :e morai -v oean xuurg of a nation's enemies in norma' warfare and the k;Sin of strangers in a situation known as murder. By deepening the know Sedge that a tribal conscience on this business from the people's total judgment still belongs among their guidelines.-But that tribal conscience cannot contradict the private consciences of many individuals, or it will lie and mislead and de fraud. By reminding each of us that as an individual, each has a right to repel an assailant, but not to kill him needlessly. We yield up our personal power to a higher authority, to the protective services of our society through law. By firming up a parallel to this among nations: Each has a right to repel an assailant, but not beyond certain limits. A strength within the human race itself may sensibly assume the sovereignty to keep any nation from crossing the line into murder, to keep human beings alive. By reminding people that rudimental organization called the United Nations weak, imperfect, limited, groping and bunghng has put the world cn a track to such a concept, where seeds of hope are still susceptible to growth. By putting more meat on the bones eed For Christian Unity certainly neglected "nity on earth. The rapid decline of religion in America and the unfortunate discrediting of much Christian witness has been due, perhsps rightfully so, to the way peopei have responded to the horrible disunity among Christians. Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are disciples, if you have love for one annf hpr." Some disciples we've been. But on the organizational and, more importantly, on the personal level, unity is possible among Christians. John Weigle, who spoke on Christian unity on campus recently, suggested several attitude changes that really make sense. First,-lie pointed out that Christians need to de-emphasize "program." Christians are too. attracted to activities, to presentations, to shows. "Jesus never said, 'You've gotta have a program," Weigle said. "The big thing for Christians is simply "being." Secondly, we've . got to quit this business of "labelling." Out of labelling comes denc-minationalism. The groups Christians belong to are not all that special. It's all too easy, if the group is Dorms, Without elimination of food service on campus will, I feel sure, only increase that trouble. Since the University is so anxious to take polls of student reaction to the loss of a food service, perhaps it might consider polling the studens on South Campus in terms of their plans for living arrangements vis-a-vis the food service. "Moral obligations" aside, the results of such a poll might demonstrate the economic inadvisability of not bothering toreplace SAGA when it leaves. Paul Bamford 358 Craige Hall Writer Blasts To the editor: In a recent 'Letters to the Editor' -i is a worthy ideal, one not e: stui won . I, reach: a';: err. a the now more "run, r of failure and doom. Improbabte. yes, Dut .h-: improbable than what the -Vietnam. Laos, the eight Berets -.d My village wou!d have seemed thr-v ago. Impractical, perhaps. But : . impractical in terms on hum a- goa!s or rationality than r.et re" a;: even been, win or lose, from ar.v , known to man. Overly simplistic as a recipe for : Maybe so. but hardly more -than the rule that when a r.a: grievance with another, with no cool it, taking, wrecking, k;. enslaving are the right way out. Odd things are happening enroute to the end of the Vie':: a- A 1 But down around the somewhere, understandings mav d that the individual can gain the tr. peace, security and freedom if t: assigns its war potential to a largt r of the human race. And then the -thing of all may be why such a understanding took so long to work. e;r , good, to worship the group rather V. God. I was out talking with people the u:Nr day about Christianity. I a.sked ore t ',1 lady what her definition of a Christ :;.r. was. "A Baptist." she answered. Labelling. The tendency of some Christians to exclude themselves from other individual or groups is also bad. To be united. Christians at the very least have to bo involved with each Other. Finally, Christians need to work on a very human emphasis on self and jealousy. As long as Christians put themselves above others, they will neither be able to act in love for others nor unite with others. And there's no need to be jealous. Christians, as Weigle points out, are not competing-for God's love and attention.' God is certainly big enough fur all. Though maybe our concept of God i too small. Christian unity is a challenge today, and its one I'd like to see the Christians on campus accept. Considering the disunity of modern Christianity -not to mention "Churchianity"it's going to bo a Jong, hard, uphill battle. But it would be nice to know who the brothers are on campus and to be o:.e with them. Food Service? column a certain writer castigated the DTH for lambasting Mr. Pete Ivey, I" NX's Press Releaser. The letter was signed T. Oliver Smegma. Such filth does not belong in a newspaper. Moreover, v: is indicative u' minds steeped in the slime of" slip hod morality. If letters such as the abo.e mentioned one continue to be printed there is no doubt in anyones' mind that our America the Beautiful will be degraded into utter ruination by the cr: immoral'ty or should I say amorality that is prevalent among such as the communist, radical "student" body at the University of Chapel Hill. With Cod's help we may once again march out of the muck and mess to assume our righ; place as the world's greatest power. In good conscier.ee. Jim Blairr.tr Hiltonhead CVurt Readers Forum Letters to the editor must be typed and double-spaced, net exceeding 300 words. The letter writer must Indicate his willingr.es for his opinion to be expressed i:: print. All printed letters must carry the name and address of the writer(s). Letters should be addressed to the Associate Editor, care of The Daily Tar Heel, Student Union. --v.- --' :;i The Daily Tar Heel is published ::by the University of North Carolina : Student Publication's Board, daily g: except Monday, examination : periods and vacations and during :sumrner periods. : Offices are at the Student Union :B!dg., Univ. of North Carolina. gChapel Hill, N.C. 27514. Telephone numbers: ' editorial, sports. :j:jnews-9 3 3-1011; business, circulation, advert ising-933-1163. Address: Carolina Union, Chape! j$Hi:!, N.C. 27514. ?-rord class postnge paid rt U.S. Impost Office in Chapef I fill, N,C. : ,3 -1 1 j !
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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March 1, 1970, edition 1
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