Susan Miller
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52 Wffr.v Of Eifiiorial Freedom
Opinions cf The Daily Tar Heel are expressed on its editorial page. AH
unsigned editorials are the opinion of the editor. Letters and columns
represent only the opinions of the individual contributors.
Susan Mi'.kr, Editor
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So everybody thought it was time
for a change in The Daily Tar Heel
for next year.
The co-editors-elect have said that
the Tar Heel this year "has been so
consistently bad this year that
nobody reads it anymore." In fact,
the Tar Heel has been so consistently
good that we will win the same
awards for college newspapers as we
have in the past and the Tar Heel will
still be rated one of the best college
newspapers in the country.
We have tried our best to put out a
damn fine newspaper, and we still
believe we have done so, in spite of
the fact that the student body
swallowed all of the generalized
criticism, attacks, slanders, etc.
against the Tar Heel which they had
been consistently reading all year, to
defeat the only candidate who had
any conception of what this
newspaper is about, what
orrection
Due to a typographical error in
Thursday's editorial, the nationwide
percentage of blacks on university faculties
was incorrectly reported as 19 per cent. The
true figure is .9 per cent. Also, the UNC
percentages, based on the old July 1, 1973,
plan, do not apply to all employes but to
faculty, administration and management
positions.
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Susan F.'iller, Editor
Cathy Farrell, Managing Editor
Bill Welch, Maws Editor
David Eskridge, Associate Editor
Nancy Pate, Associate Editor
Kevin McCarthy, Features Editor
Elliott Varnock, Sports Editor
Tom Randolph, Photo Editor
Ernie Pitt, Night Editor
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Say what
acceptability
you will about the social
or social Implications of
streaking in connection with youth today,
still one thing is clear; streakers enjoy doing
it, and spectators enjoy watching it.
Carolina may not have set the streaking
record, but UNC surely has the record for
streak spectators. Over 5,000 people
gathered along the streaking route
Wednesday night to cheer on the sparingly
clad strutters.
Why do streakers streak. What's the big
deal about taking off your clothes and
running around like an ice cream addict,
who hasn't seen a scoop in a month let loose
in Bask and Robbins?
To find out the answer to this and other
March 8, 1974
CD FIT
y
newspapering is about, what ethics
are about, and most important,
what the numerous problems and
limitations of the Tar Heel are.
Anybody who believes nobody
reads the paper hasn't seen the
average of 20 letters the Tar Heel
receives every day and hasn't had to
talk to the people who can't find a
Tar Heel because everybody else has
one.
The campaign was one of
gimmicks, lies and slanders. In the
first election, the voters swallowed
The DTH Alternative gimmick, put
out two days before the election by
Cole Campbell, who still claims it
wasn't a campaign expenditure.
Cavin didn't have the guts after
such a nasty campaign to press the
issue of campaign spending limits
for a re-election. So we had the
terrible choice of voting for the
"coalition to make the Tar Heel
worth reading" or for what we
considered to be the dirtiest
campaign this campus has seen in
years, featuring DTH burning,
violations . of the spirit of the
spending limit if not the limit itself,
slander. What a choice.
The coalition to make the Tar
Heel worth reading knows little
about how to make the Tar Heel.
So the campus voted for a change.
We doubt that you know what you
want-We doubt that you're going to
get what you want. But there will be
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yourselves if it's for the better.
We want to thank everyone who
has worked for the Tar Heel for their
support this year. We couldn't have
done it "without you.
The DTH has been around for 82
years and we have every confidence
that it will survive. But one question:
Will the student body survive the
DTH?
UFimu no
sorted (sordid?) questions I went to the only
people who might possibly know, the
streakers.
The streakers came right out with the
naked truth. They weren't covering up
anything. "At first I thought it would be a
weird, unique experience. I thought it would
change my out-look," one streaker said. This
streaker and others not identified wished to
have their names withheld from print.
Another commented, "I thought I'd feel
super strange, like the way you feel when
you're in the bathroom and someone busts in
on you, maybe. What can you say?"
"Well, do you feel that way?" tasked.
No, not at all! It's a real impersonal thing,
you're alone in a crowd of thousands." The
Ibesur
Sometimes, perhaps most of the time, it is
difficult to keep your sense of self-respect
when you are in a position of high visibility
and power, in such a position you get the
brunt of everyone's frustrations about not
being able to do anything about the sorry
state of the world, the nation, the state and
the campus.
In the face of constant criticism and or
hatred, I have had to make the unfortunate
choice between ignoring it, getting paranoid
(wondering if someone would kidnap me for
a publicity stunt), getting depressed in the
worst degree, going off the deep end or
laughing.
And I've had to fight hard to keep from
going off the deep end. No, I'm not sitting
back in my little office gloating at the student
body because 1 have power. I've been
working hard to put out the best newspaper I
can. The hardest trick, however, is
convincing myself that it was not just the best
1 could do but the best anybody could have
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'CERTAINLY NOT!
Lu Ann Jones
ape
A scream.
At first, like just another playful
whoop from students returning from a
midnight spree. At first, unheeded by
the four women who sat in a Connor
dorm room Tuesday night talking and
munching brownies.
napeff
streaker went on to say that he never noticed
anyone or anything in a streak. "You just run
and forget everything around you," he
concluded.
Most streakers weren't worried about
what friends thought because they were
streaking too. Most agreed their parents
would not be to happy seeing their kids
decked out in their birthday suit, on the front
page of the News and Observer.
A streaker from Winston dorm said he did
it because it is the only bazzar thing you can
do and still get away with it.
A veteran streaker said it is' Iike;d reaming.
"When you streak there is no reality, you just
take off and forget about everything else."
A woman who is a tried and true streaker
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done in the same circumstances.
And what are these circumstances?
Working with a very inexperienced staff and
editors new to being editors after being staff
writers. Working on a campus that hadn't
had a female editor of The Daily Tar Heel for
more than 20 years. Working with people
outside of the Tar Heel, most of w horn were
men in positions that offer them little contact
with women in a professional way. Putting
out 15.000 copies of a newspaper for more
than 20.000 persons. Working in a
newspaper office that is cramped "and
people-packed. Working for a newspaper
tight in space for news and editorial copy,
limiting the space available for special
features, photo pages and investigative news
stories, not to mention more items of events
and more news stories.
These are all problems that the new editor
will have to cope with, starting with the first
issue after spring break. You can't just fix
them because you know they are wrong and
FIVE GALLONS PER CUSTOMER,
a scream
"More streakers," one of us said
nonchalantly. And we laughed.
A shriek!
That's what the scream turned in to.
With a pitch and intensity like I'd never
heard before.
And then we made out the cry of
strides
of two mad dashes summed up things by
saying, "It's a rush man, a real rush!"
Wednesday night's streak was more than
just a batch of bodies bouncing
around ... it was a happening.
Thousands of folks gathered outside Ruffin
and Lewis dorms, down to the Union and all
the way to Bingham hall. They started
gathering before 1 1:00 p.m., an hour before
the streak was scheduled to begin. The
Carolina Pep Band provided what might be
called "music to streak by." A resident of
Ruffin dorm set up loud speakers in his
window and played rock music at the loudest
volume possible.
As people in the street boogied to the
music, comments were heard like "this even
beats Jubilee."
There is one sad foot note. Women
streaking were treated with total disrespect.
Woman's genitals and breasts were grabbed
at, action totally outside the spirit of the
humor and fun surrounding the streak.
All in all, though, it was a healthy and fun
thing.
I'd like to include this letter I received a
Jew weeks ago. It was unsigned and therefore
not printed with the letters to the editor.
The Daily Tar Heel has always attempted
to cover all news fairly and completely as
space provided. I hope the paper will
continue to do so in the future, despite
foolish anonymous criticism like this.-
"Your newspaper is garbage. If you're not
yelling and raving about some insignificant
Negro news, you're letting the ignorance fly
about the liberation of fags and women. You
are stupid enough to endorse the abolition of
abortion laws and the legalization of liquor
by the drink and even marijuana. It's thingsi
like the BSM, graduate students that think
they know something big and really know
nothing at all, the AWS, the fags and the
hairy legged females, the lettuce boycott
freaks, and most of all the DTH thai makes it
embarassing when someone asks me where I
go to school. 1 hope your court suit screws
you because there are thousands of,
aggravated students that are sick of funding
a newspaper that is good for nothing than a
safeguard against the supposed toilet paper
shortage."
Unsigned
So much for constructive criticism.
TnHTuT
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you want to fix them. You can't just fix them
by snapping your fingers and saying, "It is
done."
In any case, it has been extremely difficult
for me as an individual with an ego to take
with a grain of salt the criticisms and charges
made. But why can't 1?
One of the chief reasons I believe is the
condition of being a woman in what is still
basically a man's world. Don't stop reading
here because I won't discuss w hat men do but
how women react to their condition.
In this age, women who try to be more
than the status quo women housewives
secretariesteachers nurses find themselves
the recipients of rarely a word of praise. You
have to be on top of things consistently as
well as friendly, charming, efficient and
organized to get people to even deal with
you. The little things considered great by
your superiors or
sourcesclientsconsumers about which
men regularly receive small compliments
you probably will receive little or none of
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desperation "RAPE!"
Rushing to the window, we saw about
15 male students streaming out of
Winston, Connor and Alexander. Their
shoes thumped against the pavement as
they responded to the plea we had
ignored.
An attempted assault had just
occurred within 100 yards of where we
sat. And at first we hadn't even listened.
Then it hit us. We felt sick.
Emotionally and physically sick. Our
stomachs churned. Swallowing was
difficult. We stared blankly at each
other, looking for comfort and not
wanting to believe what we had just
heard and seen.
We tried to speak, but our sentences
wouldn't come out.
"I can't believe. ..Do you
realize . . ? Who could do . .? Can
you imagine . .?"
Shivers went through us. We couldn't
imagine and yet we could.
For the first time, assault was a reality
for us. No longer was it something we
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and
then
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that praise. With so little positive feedback
you begin to wonder whether something is
wrong with you or with everyone else. But
how could everyone else possibly be w rong?
It must be you. Particularly if everyone else
is predominantly male. So it's all up to the
woman to provide her own praise. That
takes strength a strength no man will ever
know or understand because it is the strength
it takes a person to make decisions every day
in isolation from legitimate and
constructive, productive criticism and
praise.
Woman are isolated from helpful
feedback because the state of women is so
backward that still very few women are seen
in business and professional positions. Thus
women are isolated from other women. As
for the women who are housewives, they
have spent much of their time in preparation
for marriage, raising a family and competing
for the proper men with which to do so. In
addition, women are isolated from men in
their basic lifestyles and background, while
business and professional women are
isolated from men because of antagonism
and competition.
It's hard for you to feel good as a person
when you're all by yourself. It takes strength
to call your strength just that instead of
calling it stubborness or paranoia, and this
must be backed by clear thinking. It takes
strength to trust yourself your thinking
and your judgment when you are
wondering why you get no praise. And vice
versa, you have to trust yourself to be strong.
Women badly need to "get it together," get
themselves together to give each other moral
and emotional support, constructive
criticism and praise. Men are too afraid now
of loss of status, jobs and power to be willing
to get together with women. Because women
are the other people too different to deserve
what you men have. So we can't expect our
ego support to come from most men. We
have to get it inside ourselves individually
and as a group.
While blacks call each other brother,
sister, women hardly call or call on each
other at all.
All this 1 have realized in the past year,
and, oh, has it been a hard, long mind
shaking experience. Am I right? Maybe.
Probably. But if anybody out there now has
any concern or worry for me as an
individual, I appreciate it. But I don't expect
it. Besides, 1 can take care of myself. I hope.
read about in the news the next day.
When that screaching cry penetrated
our minds, we knew we'd never forget it.
Within minutes, Campus Police were
scouring the old Chapel Hill cemetery
with flashlights, hoping to find some
clue.
Looking at the points of light darting
back and forth on the ground, one
woman said: "It's almost a symbolic
search. A search for something
intangible the victim lost. A hunt for a
confidence, a faith in humanity, a trust
in goodness that was violated."
The confusion ended. The night was
calmer and lonelier than usual. Cars
came and went behind Connor, their
motors whining hauntingly.
Quietness. Reflection.
Thoughts of the touching display of
concern and fraternity by the students
who rushed out to help.
Wanting to talk with the victim and
tell her how much we cared.
Knowing, without wanting to know,
that it could have been us.
reality
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