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81 Years Of Editorial Freedom
Opinions of The Daily Tar Heel are expressed on its editorial page. All unsigned editorials are the
opinion of the editor. Letters and columns represent only the opinions of the individual contributors.
Susan Miller, Editor
September 28, 1973
dDuninidl most ainnieiM Midfeet
The Student Government budget doesn't look like
much more than a fairly innocuous document full of
lots of tiny, little details and complicated prose.
From the information on the top of the first page of
the budget, you can't tell that it is actually the source of
a great deal cf controversy every spring and is the
prime source of problems this fall. After all, it was
reported out of the Finance Committee favorably, 4
0. Controversy? The Campus Governing Council
passed it 16-1-1. Controversy?
The one significant piece of information contained
in the "vital statistics" at the top of the page is the date
the budget bill was passed April 24, 1973.
April 24, 1973, is the day that the Campus Governing
Councihpassed in the budget a stipulation that would
make the budget a political tool and freeze funds for 1 2
student organizations.
The organizations funds have been frozen because
of a clause that stipulates that certain organizations
cannot receive their Student Government funds until
first receiving a specified amount from the University.
The Special Revenue Sharing part of the budget is
one of those brilliant ideas that should have stayed an
idea, at least for this year's budget. The idea was
transformed into a part of the working budget not
through research, planning or negotiation with the
rvim lacks
The highest points of Sen. Sam
Ervin's speech here Wednesday
night were his entry into Carmichael
Auditorium and his closing quote.
"As long as I have a mind to think,
a tongue to speak and a heart to love
my country," the country's most
recently acclaimed folk hero
concluded, "I shall deny that our
Constitution grants the President
any right to convert George
Washington's America to Caesar's
Rome."
The students loved it.
Unfortunately, the material between
the standing ovation greeting his
appearance on stage and his rousing
conclusion was a rehash of things
he's been saying throughout the long
Watergate proceedings.
But it was an experience to hear
Letters to the editor
Mad
To the editor.
Why subscribe to Mad?
My initiation to the American way of life
was through Mad Magazine. Later, I was
told that Mad was just one way of looking at
things and not necessarily correct. I decided
to keep this in mind and read Mad more
critically in the future or perhaps not read it
at alL Thus, I missed the last issue of Mad.
Instead, I received an electricity bill from
the University Service Plants and went to
their local office to pay the bill. When I took
a closer look at the bill, I saw to my
surprise that there were three different
account numbers on the bill. This aroused
my curiosity and I inquired about it over the
telephone.
After awhile the lady agreed to come
upstairs to explain the bill to me. The first
J
L :.
pndl ffunundls
University and the groups included in the clause but
by simply placing it in the budget.
But, meanwhile, the 1 2 organizations have no money
to spend.
The principle behind the clause is basically
admirable, because the University should bear some of
the burden of the costs of such groups as the Debate
Team and the UNC Concert Band. Sports-related
clubs should be getting money from the wealthy
Athletic Association.
But the University is not convinced that it should be
funding these groups, now will it be through this
unethical method of coercion. The Campus Governing
Council did nothing last spring while preparing the
budget convincing the University to give money to
these groups.
The council has left the negotiating up to the
individual organizations. This transferral of
responsibility is improper, considering the fact that the
goal of financial support from the University is a goal
set by CGC, not by these organizations.
All these organizations want is their money to
perform their activities. They deserve to have it. The
CGC should amend the budget so that it is no longer a
political bouncing ball but a bill for the disbursal of
funds.
down homnie
Sen. Sam Ervln
them from the horse's mouth, as it
were.
r
agazine, UNC
M
account number was for my previous
address in Chapel Hill, the third number was
fpr my current address, but when I asked
about the second number, she replied, "Oh!
That one is for our own purposes."
Then I inquired about the amount charged
to each account and I told her that I had
moved to my present address on Sept. 12 but
that the date on the bill was Sept. 11. To
which she replied: "Oh! That date on the
statement is for our own purposes."
Looking sad and feeling down, I
reckoned, "I am expected to pay the bill,
anyhow." However, before doing so, 1
thought, I must also understand the nature
of the telephone bills.
I called the number for telephone service
and I found out that my name was not
I --'
tounch
Ervin was not paid for his speech
but the Carolina Forum did charter
an airplane to get the senator here in
time for his 8 p.m. speech, after
Ervin spent all afternoon presiding
over the Senate Watergate
committee in Washington.
It is unfortunate, also, that Sen.
Ervin read his speech, most of which
recounted the events leading up to
and including the Watergate
committee's probing. We would
have liked to hear more of the old
country stories, literary and Biblical
quotations that give Sen. Ervin
much of his charm.
UNC should be flattered that Sen.
Ervin was generous enough with his
time to visit, but we wish he had felt
a little more at home in his own state
and alma mater.
recorded anywhere. The clerk on the phone
asked, "Could the telephone be listed under
the previous tenant's name?"
I replied that it might be so and gave her
name. In fact, that was the case.
I told the clerk that she had moved out and
that I wanted the telephone listed in my
name. She said, "There is nothing we can do
because she hasn't filed a disconnection
notice." She added, "Under these
circumstances it is wiser for you to charge the
telephone bills to her name."
I asked, "Will my name appear in the
directory?"
She answered,"! don't know." I was about
to ask her what would happen if the previous
tenant refused to pay the bills, but I
remembered that they have "for our own
$8B
Seth Effron
Helms keeps big boys honest?
Isn't it great to know your senator is
against waste in government spending?
Our senator, Jesse Helms, was just praised
by the Senate Appropriations Committee
for his initiative in bringing to light extensive
personal use of government-owned vehicles.
Several months ago the junior senator
from North Carolina asked the General
Accounting Office to supply him with a list
of every limousine owned or leased by the
federal government and every chauffeur on
the payroll.
Helms said he made the request for the
information last week after seeing"big, sleek
automobiles lined up on both sides of the
street with their motors running waiting for
the federal bureaucrats attending a party to
come out."
In an inspired economy move Helms
joined with Sen William Pastore, D-R.I.,
head of a subcommittee on vehicle use. in
pushing through an amendment to
eliminate 16 government-owned limousines
in nine government agencies under the
jurisdiction of Sen. Pastore's committee.
Helms has called this callous misuse of
taxpayer funds a "pompous raid on their
pocket books." It is nice to know Sen. Helms
can spot such minute fiscal waste. But it
seems the good senator needs glasses, for he
cant see the gold for the glitter.
The senator is against misuse of funds for
Service Plant good match
purposes" account numbers.
As I was about to leave the office, one of
the customers waiting in the lobby
commented, "You got a good deal on the
telephone bill." I left the office saying to
myself, "Why subscribe to Mad?
Why ..."
Ibrahim Kurtulus
11-A Yum Yum Apts.
Carrboro, N.C.
Public ignores
pinball addicts
To the editor.
Much attention has been given to the
population's addiction to various things.
Doctors and psychologists spend long hours
devoted to finding ways to helping addicts of
heroin, nicotine, alcohol, sleeping pills,
Howard Cosell and other- dangerous
substances.
But I would like to point out that a major
group of addicts are being ignored by the
public. These addicts are not addicted to a
drug, but to an evil machine created by man.
They are the pinball machine addicts.
Most people go through a couple of days
of pinball addiction. We have a little change
in our pockets and eventually empty our
wallets. For most, this is enough to make us
totally abstain or at least go into social
pinning, the righteousness of which is still
being debated by ministers.
Some people, however, become
permanent addicts, unable to control their
urge to play the heathen machine.
Permanent addicts will stand for hours
before machine, racking up points and
raking out money. Chronic pinb&llcrs are
easy to spot in a crowd.
They are the ones who clasp the sides of
their desk and shake it back and forth.
Whenever the belltower sounds or a class
bell rings, their eyes light up and their wrists
go into convulsions.
A . W . . . V 1 I II I I I I I J' 1 I
"What's this about a gas shortage?'
some petty bureaucrats, but what about
waste on anti-ballistic missile systems that
will be outdated before they are built, or
plans for submarines that will never work.
Millions or even billions are being wasted on
these foolish programs and where is our
watchdog senator?
Old Jesse backs up the ABM (better
known as Another Big Mistake), foreign aid
to democratically bankrupt nations (South
Vietnam) and various other big business
schemes to rip off the taxpayers in the name
of "national interest."
Jesse Helms is attacking what he calls "a
cronic affliction in the executive branch of
government" but fails to see that even if all
these comparatively small (but nevertheless
bad and blatant) resource wastes were
eliminated the savings would be nothing
compared to the amount of money wasted by
the Pentagon every year.
Helms was asked by a reporter if his stand
on the suotmobile use would not infuriate
the bureacrats, and make him unpopular. He
responded: "I didn't come here to win a
popularity contest with the bureaucrats. Let
them drive their own cars just like the
hardworking taxpayers back home do."
Well thanks a lot Jesse. It's always good t o
know you have our best interests at heart.
Next time you ride on the subway between
the Senate Office Building and the Capital, I
.think about all the hardworking taxpayers
back home who may not have cars, and can't
Whenever a hardened addict is denied his
or her machine, the withdrawal symptoms
become pronounced. The flipper fingers
twitch nervously and at odd angles, always
seeking light.
In advanced stages of withdrawal the
addict -develops an unusual craving for
dimes.
And where do pinball machines come
from? While they look innocent they are in
reality beings from another planet who plan
to addict the whole world and then flash
"tilt" and take over in the resulting chaos.
(As evidence, have you ever seen a pinball
machine emptied? Of course not. These
beings feed on Metal!)
Doctors have already related pinball
playing to fingertip cancer, and our streets
are covered with people robbing change
machines and girls selling their bodies tor
dimes.
So let us stop the spread of pinball
machines here and around the world. It will
put a jingle in our pockets, joy in our hearts
and win the war for the allies.
Bob Morrell
1031 James
Hardy's review
betrays conceit
To the editor:
Before seeing the movie "Siddhartha" I
was quite skeptical that any commercial
movie could ever approach the emotional
and intellectual depths which were conveyed
in Hesse's book. Upon seeing it 1 was both
surprised and delighted to find my
reservations completely unfounded.
Consequently, 1 find Mr. Hardy's critique
very upsetting. The intellectual
prcsumptiousness which he displays in
characterizing the film as "slow and stupid"
is nothing short of incredible.
Since the movie follows the book nearly
exactly, it seems his criticism of it as "stupid"
is really a criticism of the book itself ar.d of
Eastern religion.
get around because they also live in towns
with no mass transportation because the
Defense Department is using up billions,
along with all the other miscellaneous
governmental waste.
Sen Helms may feel he is doing the
taxpayers he represents a great service by
exposing this outlandish and ghastly waste
of tax dollars. In reality he is just wasting
valuable time that could be better spent
serving the needs of North Carolina citizens
he should concentrate on the problems of the
state rather than the abusive actions of a few
bureaucrats.
Many Americans have come to view
governmental waste as just another evil of
government that they have to put up with.
Jesse Helm's actions just reaffirm this
feeling. Helms ran for the Senate on a
platform that said the people of North
Carolina wanted a real change in their
representative. Well, they haven't gotten it.
North Carolinians have a senator just like'
all the rest. One w ho picks up on petty issues
and makes mountains out of molehills.
Sen Helms, there are bigger issues to
attack with the might and force of a seat in
the United States Senate than some
bureaucrats misusing 16 cars.
The committee letter commending Sen.
Helms was signed by the Chairman of the
committee. Sen. Pastore, and Senators
McGee, D-Wyo., Proxmire, D-Wis..
Hollings, D-S.C, Brooke. R-Mass.,
Mathias, R-Md., and Bellmon, R-Okla.
That Mr. Hardy considers himself
qualified to characterize a book by a Nobel
prize winner as "stupid" betrays an unduly
high degree of conceit. And he as much as
admits his lack of qualification for criticizing
Eastern religion when he says: "how much it
(popular Eastern religiosity) has to do with
actual Eastern religions I can't say."
In regard to the movie itself. I suggest that
the fact that Mr. Hardy finds it "sluggish" is
due to his boredom, which in turn is due to
an insensitivity on his part to any concepts or
feelings even mildly remote from those
supplied by his sensory surfaces. This is
supported by the fact that the only positive
elements he seemed to find were "a couple of
nice erotic sequences."
I suggest that Mr. Hardy stick to'
criticizing the standard Hollywood type
films which have plenty of action and basic
animal emotion, that way he will avoid the
mistake of unknowingly misevaluating films
which have any depth.
Barry Branham
University Gardens Apts.
Chapel Hill. N.C.
Susan Miller
Editor
Winston Cavln, Managing Editor
David Eskridge, News Editor
Mary Newsom, Associate Editor
Seth Effron, Associate Editor
Adrian Scott, Features Editor
EHIott Yarnock, Sports Editor
Ted Stewart, Photo Editor
Ken Allen, Night Editor