Opinion
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Evans Witt. Editor
Thursday, April 27, 1972
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Vietnam evaluation
deserves attention
Americans have been losing their
lives in South Vietnam for almost
1 1 years.
The reasons that the U.S.
government has given for
involvement in the conflict there
have varied. But a constant refrain
in the government's arguments has
been "Save South Vietnam from
Communism" and "Rid that
innocent country of the North
Vietnamese aggressors."
A study ordered by President
Nixon right after he took office
throws some light on our
One more
edition. . .
This is the last edition of The
Daily Tar Heel until next
fall-almost.
Although the DTH ceases regular
publication with today's edition, a
special edition will be published
Friday, May 5, concentrating on
the May 6 primary elections. That
paper will be devoted mainly to the
races for President, governor, It.
governor, U.S. Senator and
representative, N.C. senator and
representative and local offices.
We hope the edition will help the
students vote intelligently on May 6
on the basis of the issues and the
candidates.
Look for the special DTH edition
May 5.
Reid James
Attorney general defends
(Editor's note: Reid James is attorney
general of the student body.)
It is time to get the position of the
Attorney General's office across to the
students on the issue of shoplifting in the
Student Stores. First of all, allow me to
say that the problem of shoplifting at
UNC is not a new one. Shoplifting cases
have passed through this office often in
the two years since I have been on the
staff, and I will be the first to admit that
a great problem confronts us. However,
let's look at the problem as I have come
to know it in the two years I have dealt
with it.
Let's begin with the position, as I see
Ken Ripley
Four years of college, how quick they
pass. Some students in a hurry finished
school in three years, but four years were
soon enough.
Just how soon is hard to realize.
Somehow the thought of graduating
seems almost unreal and as far away as
the first September of freshman year. The
inevitability of the last round of final
exams makes it no less unreal, nor does
the ordering of caps and gowns and the,
little card titled, "Application for
degree."
College has become a familiar and
comfortable habit that is hard to break.
But while many are still learning the
difference between "alumnus" and
"alumni," graduation throws seniors out
cold turkey into the "real world" where
the passing of time is not measured by
semesters and the mark of success is more
than someone's quality-point average.
Getting out of school is inevitable.
Graduate school can insulate us for a
while longer in what so many have called
a "womb," but not long enough. School
is still a little cycle of years, complete in
itself, and classes sweep through campus
in unyielding rhythm,
f Every class has its own private
memories, its own perspective and its
own participants. The freshmen of 1968
M
commitments in Southeast Asia.
The study, supervised by Nixon
aide Henry Kissinger, has been
leaked to the public in the past two
days.
The report concludes from its
investigations that the South
Vietnamese would never be able to
defend themselves from the Viet
Cong and North Vietnamese
without considerable U.S. military
aid, including ground troops.
In addition, the report said it
would take from eight to 13 years
to pacify the South Vietnamese
countryside, even with U.S.
military aid.
Some may see this report as
justification for continuing U.S.
involvement in Vietnam.
But why should U.S. men
continue to die in Southeast Asia
for a goal that even the
government, with high-powered
analysts and computers, concedes is
impossible?
If the South Vietnamese simply
do not have the will to fight the
Communists, if they do not really
have the convictions necessary to
continue fighting, there is no reason
Americans should continue to die.
There is no reason for America's
resources to be drained any more
by this conflict.
The U.S. government, headed by
Nixon, seems incapable of
understanding the nature of the
situation in Vietnam, even when
the predicament is pointed out
clearly by Nixon's own advisors.
it, of the Honor Court's consideration of
these violations. The DTH reported April
19 that the Court usually judges cases
"more on the value of the item than the
principle of the thing," when in fact it
was stated that a compromise between
principle and value is a determining factor
in considering such cases. To insinuate
that only principle should be considered
is a grave injustice to the student involved
and a mockery of the Court's
responsibility to judge each violation on
that case's individual circumstances. Is it
not possible for one defendant to be
more guilty than another? Are not a
student's rights hinged on this issue?
A DTH column April 20 inferred that a
emories ffraduate with
entered a different Carolina from that
now being left by the seniors of 1972.
This year's freshmen only see the new
Carolina not the old.
It is hard to imagine campus life at
Carolina in 1968, where self-limiting
hours and visitation were unheard of in
any form, student government still had a
traditional image of itself, and Saturday
classes still existed.
Many seniors can still remember a brief
time before the undergraduate library and
the Union buildings opened, tveryone
had to use the cavernous Wilson library,
and the old Graham Memorial building
near the Planetarium was the old Union.
No one now on the Tar Heel except
myself remembers working in the old
DTH office. The one square room with
creaky wood floors was cluttered with
reporters working at one continuous desk
that ran around the wall. A cluster of real
desks, for the managing editor, news
editors, and sports editor, filled the
available floor pace, and . the clacking
wire machines-then as now - drowned
out most office noise with the fury of its
own sound.
The room was cramped, but it had
character. The present DTH office in the
modern Student Union has had to
develop its own character, and new
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Jackson Bennett
TV ads for the candidate
Now that political candidates are
relying more on advertising in the mass
media how long will it be before
commercials like these appear?
"Look, up in the sky it's a grit!"
"No, it's a candidate."
"No, it's Whiteman."
"More prejudiced than John Wayne.
Able to discredit races with sweeping
generalizations. Faster at avoiding
questions than LBJ. WHITEMAN."
Vote Wallace.
Or perhaps something like this will be
televised.
"Other day I walk into this joint. Guy
says try Nixon you'll like him. Thought I
student found guilty of shoplifting would
receive an official reprimand. In the last
four cases involving shoplifting violations
three received indefinite probation, and
one definite probation ending May 10.
An example will prove importance. In a
case completed this past week a senior
received indefinite probation not to
terminate before the end of the spring
semester 1973, so instead of graduating in
May he will not be allowed to graduate
until May 1973, and then only if his
request for re-instatement in good
standing is granted by the Honor Court.
In my opinion he isn't getting away with
an "official reprimand." And what was
this "criminal's" heinous act-he
generations of editors and reporters will
never know anything else but the long,
glass-enclosed office. Which is as it should
be.
This year's seniors were freshmen in a
year of transition. The new Union opened
up, the undergraduate library began
service, Saturday classes were finally
abolished. The first faint steps toward
self-limiting hours and visitation began in
early 1969. Bu' to some degree every
year is a transitional year, and the entire
four years of a college generation are one
continuous process of .overlapping
change.
For instance, this year's seniors will
also be the last class to remember the
University Food Service and the first
crippling boycott for food service
workers that forced the University out of
the food business.
This year's junior class will be the last
class to remember eating in Lenoir
cafeteria before it was closed. When the
class of 1973 graduates, so will the last
students who knew the old General
College requirements, much stricter than
they are now, who participated in the
Kent State demonstrations, and who
remember the referendum that challenged
the funding of the Daily Tar Heel.
When this year's sophomores graduate
f
. r
Enjoy viewing the sunrise
was going to die. So I took a Sanford. Try
him you'll like him."
Vote Sanford.
Maybe some campaign manager will
use this little bit.
"Daddy, Daddy, we only had one."
"One what?"
"One war."
"Gee, Frank, what do you think
caused it?"
"Well, we did switch to Nixon."
"Fighting wars is the whole idea
behind Nixon."
Perhaps television will one day be
graced with these spots.
action on shoplifting cases
shoplifted a three-dollar pair of
sunglasses.
Is this not strict enough? Is creating an
extreme alienation in a student by
automatic suspension necessary or right,
when something which means much more
to a person cculd be taken away. We're
not here to alienate students but to
protect the rights of everyone at Carolina
fairly, be he the injured or the violator. If
Mr. Shetley and Mr. Myers are advocating
that the Student Courts are too lenient,
then I maintain that they should come
out of their shell to see what is happening
in Student Courts.
I think I have already pointed out the
close-minded attitude seething through
seniors
9
they will be the last class at Carolina to
take exarrls after Christmas, to read a
Sunday DTH, and to attend Jubilee.
This year's freshmen will be the last
bearers of the memory of this year's
basketball season, the success of the
football season and the death of Bill
Arnold, the non-dection of Pitt Dickey's
dog. Sage, and the 1972 Carolina
Symposium.
Next year's freshmen will have
participated in none of the above
experiences. They will have their own
four years to Fill up with events, people,
and memories.
And so it goes. Those who live in
Chapel Hill, faculty, and administrators,
have seen many generations pass through
Carolina-enough to gain perspective and
let the years blur together.
But most of us come as freshmen, stay
our time, and then leave, fcxcepl for the
minority of five-year students, our
perspective is limited to the four years,
the people and events, we have known. If
the years 1968-72 are distinct and vivid
for seniors, with either good or bad
memories, it is because they are distinctly
their own . . .
The memories of an old Carolina that
will graduate with those who remember
them.
r
-even during final examinations.
"Hey, Ed, what's wrong, can't take
it?"
"Ed. see the results from Florida?"
"What's wrong, Ed. forget your
Wheaties?"
You can be sure of one thing, lid
Muskie will eat his Wheaties. the
breakfast of champions, tomorrow.
Vote Muskie.
Or how about this?
"If he tricks you once will he trick you
again? Be certain with Agnew. He's two
things in one-a fool and a liar. Be certain
with Agnew: he's two things in one."
Vote Agnew.
Of course candidates may not restrict
Student Stores concerning the courts and
its acceptance of responsibility. I
question whether the Student Stores are
being fair and guaranteeing Student
Rights. Yesterday, a case was dismissed
due to a gross lack of evidence and insight
on the part of Student Stores personnel,
and a blatant disregard of a student's
rights, who as it turned out was innocent.
If Student Stores are so concerned with
their rights, let them be a little more
concerned with the rights of those that
support them. When are they going to try
to help us stop shoplifting instead of
simply complaining and apprehending
violations. Alleviation starts before a
student enters the Store, not after he is
apprehended.
Student Stores seem to feel they are
doing the University and this office a
favor by not sending cases to criminal
court. I will still ask how many criminal
courts will accept a case involving a first
offender who has shoplifted a 10-cent
package of Turns, and if they do. how
serious do you feel the sentence would
be? If the Student Stores are desirous of
an "eye for an eye" they better stay in
Student Courts.
To say that the honor code is the best
in the area for appearance only is one of
the most frustrating statements I have
ever heard. It works at Carolina for the
vast majority of students. To say that
ulljeSailg
Evans Witt. Editor
79 Years
of
Editorial Freedom
The Daily Tar Heel strives to provide meaningful news interpretations and
opinions on its editorial page. Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the editor,
white letters and columns represent only the views of individual contributors.
Staff Photo by Cliff Kolcvso
themele to just advertisements. :he
may sponsor shows jbout themselves
with theme songs like the to! low me.
"Hey. hey we're the Donkeys
Here we come walking down the
street.
Get the funniest laughs from
everyone we meet.
We're too busy losing to put
anybody dow n.
Hey. hey we're the Donkeys."
Albeit, it might not hurt to try a few
commercials like these: it might take our
minds off serious politics for a glorious
while.
everyone respects it would be like saving
nobody smokes because it is against the
law. Be realistic That is what the judicial
system at Carolina is for. and it does deal
with violations effectively and fairly ask
the senior whose graduation has been
postponed a year or more. I'm sure he
would say it was effective, although he
may still be debating its fairness.
The DTH article April 20 maintained
that "every student at this university had
to pledge their support for the honor
code upon their entrance. Students know
about the honor code ..." Students may
know about it in so far as that it exists,
but I doubt seriously that they
understand what it means and its
ramifications for violators. Realistically,
entering students are not going to take
the time to find out what it means that
first week of orientation. Instead of
requiring more contact v. Ah the code
during this period, we . have evolved
backward to less contact. It is up to this
office, with the aid of this year's DTH, to
make people aware of the code and its
consequences.
We have a problem with shoplifting
in Student Stores, but for the reasons I
have already stated, I feel the issues are
best resolved in Student Courts.
Hopefully, with a new awareness bringing
with it a new respect for the Honor Code,
we can alleviate this problem.
(Far 11
Norman Black, Managing Editc?
Jessica Hanchar, News Editor
Howie Carr. Associate Editor
Doug Hall. Associate Editor
Mark Whicker, Sports Editor
Bruce Mann, Feature Editor
Jim Taylor, Night Editor