Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Aug. 29, 1978, edition 1 / Page 6
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6 .' The Daily Tar Heel Tuesday, August 29, 1978 38KKSSSSIES3I earlier? pre MMerm &Dg T -"we. Lou Bilionis, Editor Chuck Alston, Managing Editor Don W oodard, Associate Editor David McKinnon, Associate Editor Bernie Ransbottom, University Editor Mary Anne Rhyne, City Editor David Stacks, State and National Editor Jaci Hughes, Nexvs Editor Betsy Flagler, Teatures Editor Mark Scandling, Arts Editor Lee Pace, Sports Editor Allen Jernigan, Photography Editor Star litvl 86th year of editorial freedom Tax credits a gambit If senators and representatives are permitted to go their own misguided way, American taxpayers along with thousands upqrr thousands of college students, including hundreds in Chapel Hill alone will pay the price. Though it seems paradoxical to speak of tuition tax credits as futile attempts to solve a critical problem, the plain truth is that there are far more efficient and beneficial ways to help financially strapped families meet the burgeoning cost of a college education. For the record, both chambers on Capitol Hill already have passed their own versions of a tuition tax credit bill. After lengthy debate that began last year, the Senate approved its package two weeks ago; the bill would grant an immediate credit of 50 percent of all tuition and fees for each student in a college or post-secondary vocational school up to a ceiling of $250. Come the fall of 1980, that ceiling would be lifted to $500. The House version passed on June 1, offering a smaller credit but extending the relief to families with children enrolled in private and parochial elementary and secondary institutions. Conferees from the Senate and the House soon will meet to reconcile their differences and recommend a bill acceptable to both chambers. That draft, however, is unlikely to please President Carter, a host of educational organizations, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or the folks who are scraping to pay the bills. Nor should it. The NAACP notes that credits to private and . parochial lower schools will encourage the establishment of "segregation academies"; public educators argue the credits will spur flight from the city schools. And Carter has warned many times that he would veto the tax credits,jarguing persuasively that increased direct aid to students in the form of grants and loans more efficiently eases the college tuition crunch. With direct aid, the appropriate amount of money is available to the student at the moment he or she needs it most the beginning of the semester. Tax credits, meanwhile, surface as mere "paper games'" on April 15; the cash has long since been spent on Christmas presents, a new washing machine or Mom and Dad's vacation in the mountains. But President Carter, who has been standing on considerably shaky ground with Capitol Hill recently, has been softening his vocal opposition to the tax credits; the senators and representatives, many of whom are campaigning for the fall races, know that tax credits are appealing to an electorate whipped up by Proposition 13 and look to the tuition bill as one of the lead horses of the stage coach to re-election. Jimmy Carter does not want to interrupt that ride. And with the prospects for the president's vested interests the energy bill, in particular sagging, Carter may be hesitant to take on the Legislative Bull head to head. Political courtesies and preferred legislation should not prevent the, president from rejecting the tuition tax credits. While posing themselves as needed and long-awaited relief, they are actually placebos that barely will dent the hard shell of a spiraling semesterly bill. A sound Carter proposal to step up direct financial aid passed the Senate less than a day after the tax credits were approved, and it deserves all the lobbying strength the White House can muster. Political careers, gas-guzzlers and federal dollars are not the issues. Something far more compelling the education of a nation is at stake. Bikeways a positive sign In light of the great ado concerning the area's parking crunch, along comes a program that eliminates more spaces and is, at the same time, a positive move toward progressive transportation planning. Parking spaces along Cameron Avenue and Country Club Road-have been sacrificed for bike lanes, providing several advantages for the community. Recent surveys indicate that cyclists suffered a high injury rate in 1977. Considering the tight spaces bikers have been expected to weave in and out of, that fact isn't surprising. The removal of these parking spaces has promotional value as well. With much of the danger out of the way, potentiaLand idle bike owners surely would reconsider cycling as a serious mode of transportation. The Chapel Hill Planning Department's philosophy is a good one: ease the car crunch by encouraging alternate transportation systems. ' . The Bottom Line Paper shields The XVday New York newspaper strike has deprived the denizens of the nation's largest city of more than their daily dosage of Times foreign dispatches, Daily News columns and Post scandals; the absence of the city's three major dailies strips New Yorkers of something perhaps far more integral to their mental, spiritual and physical well-being. New Yorkers ride thousands of subway miles each working day, packed like sardines into noisy, often steamy cars. To avoid the eye contact with another human being, a loathsome act to today's urban, corporate, conglomerate man or woman, citizens of the Big Apple long ago took to burying their eyes, ears, noses, throats and identities behind the best of all possible shields: the newspaper. Without papers, commuters were forced to stare at the grafitti-scrawled walls, the station markings or even their own hands or feet. Some horrors! unwittingly violated passenger protocol and stared at their comrades in arms, the arms being business suites and briefcases or summer skirts and high-heeled mules. We welcome the birth of the new dailies that now are setting the city's voracious appetite for news during what may be a protracted strike, and commend them for clothing the naked person under the streets of New York. Shape up The Senate's new offices, currently under construction on Constitution Avenue, were originally to cost some $47.9 million in 1972, but the most recent speculation in Washington these days claims the tab may reach $200 million by the time the structure is finished. The money, not surprisingly, will go toward some lavish ends: The 50 suites for the senators each will feature 1 6-foot high ceilings (for lofty thought, presumably) and two bathrooms (for deep thought?). A tennis court will rest on the roof of one of the building's wings (sure to ease the long and inefficient lines to the most fashionable courts in the capital); a large gymnasium will be built' for the senators who regularly pump iron four, according to Sen. William Proxmire's head count. The other 96 senators would do well to join their firm and fit colleagues and make use of the bigger and better gym when it opens. With determination and diligence, along with a sensible diet, they might be able to shed a few pounds. And then they could tighten their belts a few notches. By DA VI D McKINNON As the dog days descend on us all, the talk in the national press turns more and more to the president and his "ability to lead." This almost always happens this time of year, of course. And there are some very good reasons for it. The first is that the wisdom-producers of the national press, like the rest of us, are hot and bothered this time of year, and don't really feel like hacking through two thousand or so choice words on the long-term prospects for world peace, or any of the other heavy metal that makes their trade so colorful and exciting during the rest of the year. After all, these guys live and work in cities like New York and Washington, which can be mighty uncomfortable places in August. Especially in August. So why not just settle back in the big refrigerated newsroom, and speculatel Makes sense. And in case we haven't pointed this out, these guys are into sense. Good sense, if they can get it; if not, well then, whatever comes down the wire, you know? Which brings us around to the second good reason for all the wisdom on the Carter Presidency: there's nothing coming down the wire. After all, this is August, when all the Deeply Important People (right, the DIPs) are on vacation. Hell, the entire population of France is on vacation (not that they're all DIPs). . Congress is rumored to be in session, but it's hard to tell. Some people say Congress is always on vacation. The world leaders are on vacation. The wisdom producers themselves would be on vacation if they x hadn't used all their vacation in February trying to escape places' like New York and Washington. And New York and Washington can be mighty uncomfortable places in February. Especially in February... There is news, of course. We wouldn't want to imply that there isn't. But sometimes, dang it, events just move too fast for the wisdom-producers of the national press. And this seems to have happened in the case of the recently-elected pope. Of course, as basically irreligious types in general, the wisdom-producers are at a disadvantage from the outset when it comes to speculating on popes. But when the Sacred College of Cardinals came up with their quickest decision in a hundred years, well, it 4 i , "V, J, iff W if x t. r V ',, i 4 ' CM1 v' v , i 5: 5 n if t . 4 1 'V 0$ -t ! 9 4? seemed to be too much too soon for the national press. We'll just have to wait. Of course, we can't blame the Sacred College of Cardinals either. Rome can be - a mighty uncomfortable place in August... So thoughts, having missed the boat on the pope, turn elsewhere for their rambles. The prospects remain bleak, however. No one can tolerate more wisdom on the balloonists. Ditto for the Cuba to Florida swimmers. No new fads. No new trends. No new movements. No new crazies. No new nothing. Which brings us to the third good reason for speculating on The Presidency: the president' any president is the most Deeply Important Person in the world, and so people like to read about him. Of course, people like to read about the people who are just pretty important people (the PIPs). The people in People, for example. People like the people in People. People like the people in Us, too, even if they are the same people in People. But we digress. The fact remains that Carter is the obvious choice. The wisdom-producers, after all, just can't write about Jackie O and John Travolta. Or at least not more than once, a year,, and most of them used up all their speculations on the New Phlegmatism back in February, right before they took off for the Carribbean to get away from that sort of thing. And to get away from places like New York and Washington... V DTHAilen Jernigan So it's Carter or nothing (never mind that there may be no choice implied). Unfortunately for the wisdom-producers, Carter is on vacation too, like the rest of the DIPs, (and many of the PIPs). And since Carter isn't doing anything while he's oh vacation, there aren't any new stands to be taken. Nothing new on the energy plan, or the health-care plan, or the civil-service plan. Nothing on defense, nothing on HEW, nothing on HUD, nothing on NOTHING. So it's Carter, in to to. Carter, says the wisdom, has alienated Congress. He has alienated blacks. The South. Unions. Wall Street. The Soviet Union. The Western Powers. The Third World. The Israelis and the Arabs. The Rhodesians and the Zimbabweans. Even his own White House people, who continue nevertheless to help him alienate everyone else. You have seen this before. And not just in August, the time normally reserved for progress reports on presidents. You see this all the time, all year. You even saw this in February, didn't you? Right before that piece on the New Phlegmatism, with Jackie Oand John Travolta. Sure you did. We think we know why. -. . David McKinnon, a senior English and history major from Wadesboro, is an associate editor for. the Daily Tar Heel. A layman's handbook . The sure-fire way to spot a freshman By REID TV VIM - We kijow you're out there. You can't hide. There's no way to miss seeing you. A freshman. The idealistic guy on the hall. You get up and go to church on Sunday no matter how late you stayed up Saturday. You've already bought your books. And paid your tuitiom And you eat all your meals at the Pine Room, or Chase Cafeteria, or the Hunger Hut. You still haven't learned how to cross a street in Chapel Hill. No one except a freshman ever looks before he starts across. The trick is to learn how to stare down the driver of that car. Just sit on the Franklin Street wall one afternoon, and you'll pick up all the pointers,you'll ever need.. You're the one who likes living in a dorm not for the convenienceor for financial necessities but because you like the atmosphere. You go to all the letters to the editor dorm meetings. You talk to your R.A. You worry about that strange smell escaping from the room next door. And about the visitation policy. You ask questions that, well, . would be downright embarrassing if you realized how stupid they were. Why, when you are on the first floor of a building waiting for an elevator, do you ask "Going up?" when the door opens? "How do I get to Dey Hall?" gets old after the second or third time. But then so does seeing someone discreetly trying to slip a map of the campus out of a notebook for a quick peek. You have not yet discovered the joy of lying out on Connor Beach. Or watching Brutus the Collie digging on the ambiance near the undergrad library. Or throwing a Frisbee on Polk Place. Do you even know what or where Polk Place is? You will want to sit in the card section at home football games. You will enjoy the squawks of the head cheerleader. You will get too drunk and barely make it back to the dorm. You envision yourself perched in Blue Heaven for all the home basketball games. Keep dreaming. You. have eight o'clock classes, and you writt down everything the instructor says. You wonder why the upperclassmen aren't. They arc too busy doing the crossword puzzle in the Daily Tar Heel. Or the Wordy Gurdies in the Greensboro Daily News. But I do have compassion for you. You will never experience the charm of the old Breadman's. Or the N.C. Cafeteria. Or P.J.'s, the Village Squire or Tello's, which have all occupied during the last six years the spot Rendezvous presently holds. By the way, most upperclassmen don't know what Polk Place is either. Reid Tuvim, a junior journalism major from Atlanta, Ga., is Weekender editor for the Daily Tar Heel. Seabrook activist preaches non-violence To the editor: As an anti-nuclear activist, 1 enjoyed seeing Thursday's article on the Xudzu Alliance and local efforts to stop nuclear energy. There was one item in the article, though, that needs to be cleared up. It was stated that, "U nlike anti-nuclear activists in Seabrook, N.H., Kudzu members say peaceful protest methods are more effective in persuading government leaders that nuclear power is not the answer to the nationwide energy crunch." This implies that Seabrook activists are non-peaceful and committed to violent methods. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a member of the Clamshell Alliance (the New England coalition formed to stop the Seabrook nuke), I had to attend an eight-hour seminar on non-violence and learned quickly that non-violent action is the root of the Clamshell Alliance. Non-violent direct action includes many things: leafleting, demonstrating, boycotting, letter writing, "withholding of rate payments used to build nuclear power plants, petitioning of government agencies, and civil disobedience. In the Clamshell handbook for June's Occupation Restoration of Seabrook, , & .m : - ' -fill W mkx " ' - - - t- "! ---'V .s ' ; - i i i mi i i ii. rnr m m r ''-i'"--r"""Y -'"-iVrt "--"-- i.-. -..-t, l.. tn- m - n-'.-m ,,si,auM.v"t'. W i N our committment to non-violence is put forth quite eloquently: "Nuclear power is a violent technology. By opposing it non violently, we make it clear that the real nuclear terrorists are the people and institutions who perpetrate that technology, not those who work to stop it." Derek Frost -Chapel Hill Drechsel omission To the editor: Regarding your article, "Fall Sports", in the August 24th DTH, we would like to pomt-ourthafTJave Drechsel, who.was co-captain of " last year's cross country team, also will not be returning. We feel that this is a definite loss for the team and we were dismayed by the fact that he was not mentioned in the article. Alex Bowers Peter Higgins Gene Rossitch Larry Gibson Dean Sexton Mark Gallop 23 and 24 Old West Letters? The Daily Tar Heel welcomes contributions and letters to the editor. Letters must be signed, typed on a 60-space line, double spaced and accompanied by a return address. Letters chosen for publication are subject to editing.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 29, 1978, edition 1
6
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