8 The Daily Tar Heel Monday, April 24, 1978
Lou Bii lONis
Editor
Chuck Alston, Managing Editor
Betsy Flagler, Associate Editor
Don Woodard, Associate Editor
Bernie Ransbottom, University Editor
Mary Anne Rhyne, City Editor
David Stacks, State and National Editor
Jaci Hughes, News Editor
Leslie Scism, Features Editor
Mark Scandi ing, Arts Editor
Lee Pace, Sports Editor
Allen Jernigan, Photography Editor
3iu
lirrl
86th year of editorial freedom
Anita chases smoochers from her sunshine tree
j
For Senate: McNeill Smith
North Carolinians face a rare opportunity
on May 2. They can nominate a man for the
U.S. Senate who has led them since the 1950s
with all the wisdom, compassion and
unswerving integrity a public servant can
muster. They can select a candidate who has
proposed innovative and progressive
programs to benefit the state and the nation.
They can cast their ballots for McNeill
Smith.
It is indeed a unique situation, but
McNeill Smith is a unique individual.
Always a decade ahead of the times, Smith
has never feared to embrace unpopular
issues and tackle challenging problems
stands which years later have become
ingrained in contemporary thought as no
less than just and right.
In the '50s, McNeill Smith took to the
defense of Junius Scales, who was convicted
of criminal charges resulting from his
membership in the Communist Party. The
act was deemed brazen and radical at the
time; today, few outside of the reactionary
would deny an individual's right to his or her
own political persuasions and affiliations.
In the '60s, Smith represented several
students at this University in their challenge
of the state's speaker ban law, which gave
administrators at a state university the
privilege to pass approval over all speakers
invited to the campus. The right to a free
exchange of ideas is taken for granted today,
but just a few years ago McNeill Smith was
criticized for defending that right.
Smith established himself as one
possessed of a clear and far-seeing vision
long before he entered the political arena.
One of the founders of the North Carolina
Civil Liberties Union, Smith, along with his
Greensboro law firm of Smith, Moore,
Smith, Schell & Hunter, has consistently
fought for the rights of the common when
challenged by theforces of society. Heserved
on the 1959 North Carolina Advisory
Committee on Civil Rights and has led the
state for nearly two decades in the field.
His first bid for office, aside from a
successful campaign for the editorship of this
newspaper in the 1930s, came in 1968. Smith
lost in his campaign for the state House of
Representatives but won the next time
around in 1970. When Hargrove "Skipper
Bowles left his state Senate seat to enter the
gubernatorial race in 1971, Smith was
appointed to fill the unexpired term. He was
siiequently elected in 1972, 1974 and 1976.
During these terms, more bills presented
by McNeill Smith have won legislative
approval than those of any other legislator.
Smith worked for the reduction of pot
penalties, for an increase of the state
minimum wage, against the death penalty
and against the state's regressive food tax.
He presented bills to create a state
kindergarten and a pilot project for the
current state reading program. He called for
a state energy program, a reorganization of
the state university system and a program for
state-park acquisition. In fact, the only stand
McNeill Smith has taken in Raleigh adverse
to our preferences was his fight against
liquor by the drink.
In his campaign to face Jesse Helms in the
November senatorial election, McNeill
Smith has promoted perhaps the most
innovative legislative programs of all eight
Democratic hopefuls. Instead of simply
bemoaning the ills of inflation, Smith has
proposed a bill to limit the spiraling effects of
foreign-oil imports. Instead of opting for the
traditional rhetoric about unemployment,
Smith has proposed a program of tax
incentives and subsidies to business and a
program of public works jobs. Instead of
echoing President Jimmy Carter's calls for
national health insurance, Smith has
proposed his own solution, which would
provide the healthcare needed by American
families without draining the federal coffers.
No labels
It is difficult to talk of McNeill Smith, for
the man defies labels. He has earned the
unfair tab of "liberal" through his work with
civil liberties. Perhaps he might better be
characterized as a progressive, or a social
libertarian. But, as his health program
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indicates, Smith can be a fiscal conservative
he always has been on the lookout for
more cost-effective ways to deliver the
services good government must deliver. And
he warns of the growing federal deficit and is
committed to shaving that debt.
Other misleading ' labels and
characterizations have plagued McNeill
Smith during the primary campaign. It is
certainly true that the Smith campaign has
suffered from a lack of funds, but money
only dictates advertising, not qualifications
for a post. The claim that Smith will be lucky
to enter the contest against Helms is
equally true and equally deceiving.
Though McNeill Smith may not enjoy the
recognition or grassroots machinery of other
candidates, he undoubtedly excels when the
talk turns to legislative accomplishment and
potential in the U.S. Senate.
The political realities
Eight candidates are seeking the
Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate
on May 2. Four Tom Sawyer, David
McKnight, Joe Felmet and William Griffin
offer nothing new and little intriguing.
All reports predict the race will come
down to four other men: Lawrence Davis,
John Ingram, Luther Hodges Jr. and
McNeill Smith. The polls show Hodges with
a healthy lead, which can in part be
attributed to his famous name. But Hodges
has worked hard to overcome his
shortcomings as a political neophyte and has
encountered remarkable success in his
travels back and forth across the state. His
program is sound a mixture of fiscal
conservatism and social libertarianism. His
message is clear the pressing issues of the
day involve the economy and his
background in business, economics and
manpower services would place him in good
stead in Washington.
Lawrence Davis represents the most
conservative of the four major candidates.
He fails, however, to represent what we feel
are the concerns of the University and its
community let alone the state. John
Ingram, the state insurance commissioner,
has failed to impress. As the Charlotte
Observer said Sunday, "His campaign has
been as haphazard and disorganized as his
conduct of the insurance commissioner's
office."
Set aside the polls
The Democratic Party has placed the
defeat of Jesse Helms high on its list of
priorities. Rightfully so. But North Carolina
voters should consider more than a
candidate's chances of victory when casting
their ballots. No candidate today stands as
great a chance of defeating the incumbent as
1. ut her Hodges Jr. But no candidate offers as
much promise on the floor of the U.S. Senate
as McNeill Smith.
To again quote the Charlotte Observer,
"McNeill Smith. . .should be on anyone's
list of the greatest living North Carolinians.
As a man of intelligence, compassion and
simple human dignity, he has few peers."
The voters of this state have one more
week to learn of McNeill Smith. If they do,
then his chances of victory against Jesse
Helms may be a great deal rosier on May 2.
For it the Democrats of North Carolina look
closely at McNeill Smith's past successes,
present offerings and future potential, they
will agree that he is clearly the man to
represent this state in the U.S. Senate.
Bv DOUGLAS TRAUB
Anita Bryant squeezed her oranges, bouncing them up and
down, bouncing them up and down for the Lord.
"Come to the Florida sunshine tree," she sang, "That's
where the people do it naturally."
She watched two young people smooching beneath the
Florida sunshine tree in her backyard.
"I don't mind when it's natural," she smiled. "I don't mind
when a man and a woman do it naturally. But when it's two
men, well, it's just awful. The Lord saysthat all gays will goto
Hell, and I'll drink to thai!"
Anita swallowed her orange juice naturally, letting little
glittering golden drops dangle from her chin like tears. When
letters to the editor
she walked over to her Florida sunshine tree to pick another
orange, she noticed that the two young people beneath her
tree were men.
"My God!" she cried. "Sin, oh sin! You two are sinning in
the eyes of the sunshine.tree. Can't you see, oh, can't you see,
what this sinning means to me?"
Suddenly, Anita's family, singing in unison, appeared on
the sundeck of her home. The chorus rang through Florida,
clear to Miami, and then on to Minnesota.
"Can't you see, oh, can't you see, what this sinning means
to me? Can't you see?" Anita clapped her hands together as
the rest of Florida joined in, "Oh, can't you see, what this
sinning means to me?"
"Hold it, hold it, hold it," said one of the two young people
beneath the sunshine tree.
The chorus in Anita's yard quieted.
"What do my sexual preferences matter to you, Anita?" he
asked.
"My children," cried Anita, "my poor innocent children. If
I saw my children kissing beneath the sunshine tree, I'd cry.
Then they would go to Hell."
"To Hell?"
"Yes. To Hell."
"1 don't believe that Anita. I may not go to your heaven,
and I hope I don't, but"
Anita paid no attention. She juggled her oranges
rhythmically, bouncing them up and down, bouncing them
up and down and singing so that the world would do her will
for the Lord.
Douglas Traub, a junior, is a journalism major from
Miami, Fla.
Carter, not Congress, responsible for failures
To the editor:
1 am compelled to reply to a letter
published recently in the Daily Tar Heel
( Carter performance editorial viewed
unfair," April 20).
The writer sought to suggest that Congress
and not President Carter is responsible for
Carter's failure in the presidency. The writer,
seeking somehow to defend the president,
goes so far as to suggest that "Jesse Helms
and other politicians like him" are to blame
for the numerous failures of the Carter
administration.
1 humbly suggest that Carter is finding
that it is difficult to go from the Georgia's
Governor's Mansion to the White House
without adequate preparation. I suggest
further that Carter is discovering that while
firm handshakes and a brilliant smile can
win primary and general elections, they do
little to solve the problems this nation faces.
I suggest that in 1980 the American people
remove Carter from the White House and in
his place install someone who will provide
America with the strong and able leadership
that is desperately needed for the future.
Bryan Wirwicz
2418 Granville South
'No go' on no-car policy
To the editor:
Your recent editorial on the parking-lot
versus fringe-lot issue prompts me to
mention some ingredients and past history
which may have been overlooked.
I was in Chapel Hill back when students
were making m uch noise to the effect that the
University should get rid of its ownership of
the telephone system. Those vocal students
are now gone, and present students must
suffer the consequences by paying higher
fees and possible exorbitant installation
charges. For the most part, students now
speaking out on t he parking issue will not be
the ones affected by the issue in the future.
I was also in Chapel H ill back when it was
decided that the parking system ought to be
studied by experts (in the 60s, I believe).
Accordingly, a large sum of money was paid
to "experts" who told us ultimately what we
already know: that we had a parking
problem and would have to get either fringe
lots or more spaces on campus, or both.
I want to point out that the fringe-lot
solution may work for many people, but not
for all. Professors Shafroth and Gilgen have
written letters supporting the "no-car" (or
similar) solution as have others. Such
persons always seem to have one thing in
common: tor them it is feasible to walk (as
with Professor Shafroth) or take a bus from
a lot (as with Professor Gilgen).
For other persons a "no-car" policy may
cause enormous hardship. I am a single
parent, a father of two small children whom I
take to school at 8:15 and pick up from an
after-school program before 5:30 ($5 late
fee). Yet I often have meetings until 5 p.m.
How could I catch a bus to a fringe lot and
then get my children, all within a 30-minute
period? There are others also who, like me,
must carry typewriters and stacks of books
back and forth between home and office.
And there are others who have
complications not even dreamed of by me,
Professor Shafroth, or Student
Government, not to mention the Tar Heel
editor. Whatever system we end up with,
there should be accommodations made for
people with many kinds of problems and
needs.
S. R. Smith
426 Dey Hall
Right to vote
To the editor:
Confusion abounds with recent news
m DO YOU VM IT?'
stories about the challenge to students' right
to vote. The purpose of this letter is to clarify
what will be required of student voters on
May 2. Unless a student has received a
challenge letter sent by mail from the Orange
County Board of Elections, registered
students should rfeel free to vote on election
day without anyquestions or hassles. If you
have received a challenge letter, you may
expect the following procedure:
All students who have been challenged
by letter who are not full-time
undergraduates will be required to sign an
affidavit attesting to that fact; they will not
be asked any further questions and may vote
after signing the statements.
All students who are full-time
undergraduates and have received a
challenge letter will be required to submit to
an election day hearing at the polls before a
precinct judge (fellow Orange County
citizens for that purpose). Inquiries will be
made as to where the student lives and as to
whether he intends to remain in Orange
County indefinitely. You will be required to
provide further proof of where you reside by
having another resident of the precinct
identify you. Be prepared by taking a
neighbor with you to the polls. Student
Government will provide, upon request, the
names and addresses of fellow students who
are registered in your precinct. If you are
challenged, and are a full-time
undergraduate, be certain to make
arrangements to vote in pairs so that you can
be identified. Answer all questions truthfully
and, if you truly intend to reside indefinitely
in Orange County (that is, you have no
immediate plans to reside elsewhere), you
should be allowed to vote. If you are denied,
you may call upon Student Government for
assistance.
Heather Weir
Director of Local Affairs
Suite C, Carolina Union
The Daily Tar Heel welcomes
contributions and letters to the
editor. Letters must be signed, typed
on a 60-space line, double-spaced
and must be accompanied by a return
address.
University gives permits to hunt parking places
By LISA GOODWIN
Dear Mom and Dad,
Here's some good news and some bad
news. First, the good news no dorm rent
next year! The bad news no dorm room
next year! The Admissions Office has as
much problems with math as I do. It
calculates how many freshmen to accept, but
the sum never adds up right at the Housing
Department. While addition is difficult for
admissions, subtraction . comes easily to
Housing. Every year Housing subtracts
several hundred students from their rooms.
And I'm one of Housing's remainders next
year. (Maybe someone had multiplication
confused with addition.)
Multiplication is definitely a factor at this
University. To get anything, we have to wait
in lines that multiply around themselves. We
wait fof tickets, books, pictures, classes,
grades, food and even toilets at the football
games. I've learned to get in line early, carry
a portable backgammon set with me, and
always potty before the game.
Not only does the University not provide
enough housing for all the students, but it
also fails to provide ample parking spaces.
To pay for one of those treasured parking
permits, a student has to give up eating for
three months, sell his kidneys, and auction
off his car. And a parking permit is actually
only a hunting permit. No parking space is
promised. A permit gives only the right to
hunt for a space.
I had to learn a whole new coloring system
during this first year at Carolina. There is a
big difference between light blue and dark
blue about 1 5 miles worth. Red is a color
in disfavor, and HEW is a hue often called
deaf, dumb and colorblind.
1 appreciate all you did to prepare me for
my freshman year at college You taught me
never to curse and told me what four-letter
words to avoid in conversation. But you left
out one of those words exam. The first
time I said it aloud four people fainted, and
one girl threw her zoology book at me and
washed my mouth out with beer.
You also mentioned students have a one
track mind about a certain bodily need. You
were right. There is one thing students
always talk about and desire 24 hours a day.
Some satiate their desires behind closed
doors in late night study breaks. Others can
be seen openly satisfying themselves on park
benches, in bars and even in class. Many
freshmen girls start showing early. Without
places like Roy Rogers and the Circus
Room, I -don't know what some people
would do. Food is definitely forever on the
hearts, minds and stomachs of Carolina
students.
But there is something you were wrong
about. People can actually exist on three
hours of sleep a night. Several students sleep
standing up or walking around campus, and
even more sleep through class. Not since
kindergarten were naps ever so popular. I
think some people have infrared eyes for
seeing at night. If not infrared, at least red.
There are a lot of different people here
those who drink, smoke, pray, wear sandals
in the winter and sleep with the one they love.
Too many misconceptions can be made from
one observation.
Being accepted follows a student all
through school from the moment acceptance
at the University is made. Teachers, banks,
jobs, fraternities, sororities and classes all
have their requirements. I have learned to
accept people, out of love and respect for
their freedom to be whomever they want.
Don't worry, Daddy. 1 haven't turned into
a braless liberal. Certainly love isn't that
radical an idea.
I'll be home in a few weeks. But I will be
leaving the home of friends I've made here.
I'm not that much different from the girl
you left here last fall, except the freshman
green is almost worn off of me now, and I see
a faint, Carolina blue coming through.
Can't wait to see that old station wagon
come May.
Much love,
Lisa
Lisa Goodwin
Winston-Salem.
is a freshman from
Carrboro is changing as Mayor Robert Drakeford prods it along
"A politician shouldn't stay around forever.
He tends to get stagnant," Carrboro Mayor
Robert Drakeford said recently.
"As long as what I do does some good, I'll
continue. But when the 'Peter Principle' catches
up with me, you're going to know it," he said.
As Drakeford talked in his Carrboro office, he
?9
" jY Q VOTES
Bv CAROL MANNER
was far from stagnant. The telephone rang
several times as he sifted through a stack of mail.
"Different towns have different systems, so t he
titles of those in the government vary. But they
all have a mayor, and, as a result, everything has
to be signed by him," Drakeford explained as he
opened letter after letter.
Meetings keep him constantly on the go. "( )ut
of 20 working days in a month, I can easily go tu
25 meetings," Drakeford said
Besides t .v !'. committee meetings, Diakcloid
attends, meetings of the Piitham-Oiangc
Linployment and liamimr Count f. a !c-!-,;.!
n;.js:'v.cr ti.uicv. ,xu,l tee Oi.ee.'e
Chatham Counties Association, a service
organization.
In March, Drakeford was elected president of
the North Carolina Conference of Black
Mayors, a nonpartisan organization that
provides technical and management assistance
to the 15 black mayors across the state.
Why so much involvement? "1 discovered after
a while that the person who is most involved
becomes the person whose town mysteriously
seems to get funded the most by state and federal
grants," Drakeford said.
"Carrboro is a town in transition. It's the
second-fastest growing town in North Carolina.
Frankly. I think most of the problems we have
could be solved with money.
"The question 1 ask myself is, 'W ho benefits
the most from my activities? Bob Drakeford or
the town?' I think the answer is the town."
Drakeford sees new industry as another of
( ai rboro's needs.
"We have a lot of unemployed and a lot of
undci employed people. We need to diversify our
wage base. I hcie aic lots ol people who would
like to stay in this area when they graduate, but
ihr can": because thee isn't a market lor their
skdiv" 1 )t akitotd said
I he i.iwn ti C.iuboio is cvpciiciti'irit. sonic
r. : . ' !! i: v. I 'm ft i i ! ,iA. p..t; t'.cul.ii i in
Robert Drakeford
the way board of aldermen meetings are run.
"In most of our meetings, we spend 45 minutes
to as much as two-and-a-half hours hearing from
citizens. This isn't an old thing. 1 feel that peop..
are much mot: lice to express themselves. If
what they sav is at all lelevant to what the board
is doing, we want to hear from them.
"I he students
viewpoints need
to
e pi issv d.
ii was the .student
population that elected me. It is one of our main
constituencies not our only constituency, but
one of the main ones.
"I have lived in an apartment, I've been a
student, and I've been around students lpng
enough to know that they aren't always the
favored children, that their needs are important,
too."
Drakeford finds the recent attempt by the
Orange Committee to stop students from voting
in Orange County "very distressing."
"When someone starts challenging the basic
right of students to vote and is successful, what is
to stop him from challenging the rights of
females, or blacks, or left-handed people or red
haired people? Once a precedent is established,
what is to stop the same thing from happening
again?" he said.
Drakeford's familiarity with students and with
the Carrboro area steins from his own roots in
North Carolina. His great grandfather was a
slave in nearby Scotland County. Of five
generations of his family, Drakeford was the
only generation not born in North or South
Carolina. He was born in New York City.
He graduated from Quinnipiac College in
Connecticut with a degiee in business
administration and behavioral management in
I1):;.
UNC, from which he received a masters degree
in regional planning and a masters degree of
science and public health, brought Drakeford to
the South to stay.
He was elected to the Carrboro Board of
Aldermen two-and-a-half years ago and later
was elected mayor. "The transition from
alderman to mayor was difficult," he said. "I've
had to tone down my personality quite a bit.
"If an alderman says something you don't like,
you don't argue with him. Another alderman
could just jump down his throat. The mayor
must be more objective; he is a facilitator. The
alderman is more of a persuader, a debater, and
he is more involved in the committee system."
Does Drakeford have political ambitions for a
statewide campaign of any type?
"I have been involved in the recent senatorial
campaign c" McNeill Smith in which I traveled
16,000 miles from November to March. That
kind of campaign takes too much out of you
financially, professionally and personally. A
state office is not in my ambition right now,"
Drakeford said.
"I'm just trying to do the best job I can as
Carrboro mayor."
Carol Hanner, a sophomore journalism and
FnHish major from Thorcasville, is a staff writer
for the ), Tar Heel,