Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / Feb. 26, 1970, edition 1 / Page 2
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Intergration: Back to Basics A considerable potential for mischief lurks in Senator Ribicoffs curious alliance with Senator Stennis and other Southerners to legislate against de facto school segregation in the North. But it could also prove highly salutary provided it forces an honest new look at the basic question of what desegregation policies are intended to accomplish. The underlying question is nothing less than the ultimate objective of desegregation. Do we seek homogenized integration, with Negroes sprinkled evenly throughout the population by coercion if necessary? Or is the eventual objective the combination of legal equality and cultural pluralism through which Americnan society has accommodated other ethnic groups? In education at least, national policy has been seeking one objective in the South and another in the North. This is the real reason Senator RibicofTs charges of "monumental hypocrisy" ring so disturbing true. It's not merely a matter of the liberal commentators and politicians who decry private "academies" in the South but would not dream of sending their own children to public school in Washington or New York. The hypocrisy is not mere posturing but a matter of policy. In the South, the Federal courts and administrators have not been content^with merely requiring Southern school districts to remove legal obstacles to integration. If actual integration did not in fact result, the presumption has been that the legal obstacles remain in one form or another. As the only acceptable proof that de jure segregation has been ended, the South must end the de facto segregation also common in the North. Thus while ostensible national policy has been equality before the law, the actual policy in the South has become integration for the sake of integration. Now there is something to be said for this double standard, given the performance of the white South since the 1954 Supreme Court desegregation decision. Southerners met the decision with the doctrine of "massive resistance," the first in the series of declarations of civil disobedience that have caused so much trouble in recent years. Despite occasional genuine efforts at integration, the South mostly has offered one guise or another to maintain the old strictly segregated ways. Harsher treatment of the South is a predictable result of such defiance. And while it is punitive, as a matter of raw justice the South may have it coming. The problem with punitive policies, though, is not that they are always unjustified but that they are nearly always self - defeating. In the long run any real solution to this nation's racial problems depends on keeping nearly everyone within the political and social ?y>icui. thriving large numoers 01 people into the arms of the George Wallaces is not exactly the way to ease racial tensions. Even more important, punitive policies exact a toll not only from those who suffer them but from those who wield them. We are seeing this in the confusion that followed the Ribicoff speech, and in the danger that the North's guilt will overwhelm its best judgment on what he proposes. When Senator Stennis proposes to legislate against de facto Northern segregation. Senator Ribicoff says hurrah. Let's us - you and me and Senator Stennis -- make integration for the sake of integration the policy of the whole nation and not just part. Let the nation, in other words, opt for homogenized integration and forget about cultural pluralism. We do not find this preference a self ? evident one. Nor do we sense that any such choice has been made by American Negroes, who would have reason to find it condescending and who talk more and more about their own neighborhood schools. Surely it is a choice that ought to be made only after careful and forthright consideration, not from pangs of guilt. Even more certainly, it is not a choice for Congress to make unless it is serious, as Senator Stennis and his friends assuredly are not. It would be far wiser, we think, simply to concede that Senator Stennis has a point, and to apply the standard of equality before the law in the South as well as the North. This need not mean the end of all attempts to attack persistent school segregation, merely the end of the presumption that in the South de facto segregation is necessarily a cloak for de jure segregation. Instead of requiring an affirmative recial balance, the Government would attack only overt obstacles to integration like discriminatory laws and demonstrable coercion. This approach would of course make it more difficult for the Government to win its lawsuits, but the effect on the real underlying problem is quite another question. Particularly since the remaining racial problems are so much a matter of personal attitudes, we doubt that the nation can make meaningful progress with them unless it keeps its objectives clear and its ideals unblurred. It cannot do that if it resorts to double standards. So national policy ought to seek the same objectives and apply the same ideals throughout the nation. And pending some national decisions far more fundamental than the hand ? wringing that has followed the Ribicoff speech, the relevant ideal is not that the law should enforce racial balance but that the law should be color-blind. WA l.L STRUT JOLRXA I. Browsing in the files of Tho Nows-Journal 25 years ago February 22, I94S H B. Terrell and N.A. McNeill made a business trip to Charlotte last Wednesday, * ? ? Pender's advertises a one and a halt' pound loaf of sandwich bread for 11 cents. * * * BP. Robinson advertises pure-bred, milk-fed. blood tested broilers and fryers. * * * With the 26th Infantry Division, Pfc. Richard t. Neely, of Raeford. has been promoted to Tec S for excellent qualities of leadership and outstanding performance of duty. He is the husband of Mrs. Jessie Mae Parker Neely. of Raeford. and formerly worked for Great Lakes Steel corporation in Michigan. * # ? John Dune McNeill, chief petty officer. USNR. stationed at Pensacola. Fla . is visiting his mother. Mrs Nan McNeill. ? * ? Ptc John Lee Stephens of Fort Jackson. S.C. spent a furlough at home * * * Jack Lee, S l-C SK. who is stationed at Vernalis. Calif., spent a leave at home visiting his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Lee. * ? ? Sgt. Halite Haire has written his parents of his safe arrival in France. ? ? William Lester Seals has been promoted to tlte rank of first lieutenant. Hilton Seals, who is with the Navy V-12 program, graduates this week at Chapel Hill and will go to Duke University for further training. Both boys are sons of Mr and Mrs. Luther Seals, of Raet'ord. Route One. ? ? ? Capt. Paul Dickson and Capt. Clyde Upchurch have run into each other again "over there." 15 years ago February 24, 1955 Israel Mann advertises the fine merchandise at 20 per cent reduction, saying "No matter the distance, it will pay you to come to our sale. Where Price & Quality Meet." ? ? ? The Raeford Jaycees presented their first annual "Distinguished Service" award to J a mes E. Tillman, superintendent of the Para Thread Company plant here. ? ? ? _The Footwear and General Products Division of United States Rubber Co. this week acquired the production facilities here of Para Thread Co. of N.C.. it was announced by M.E. Cooper, the company's manager of yarns and rubber thread of the division in New York. Plant superintendent is to be Robert Markham. of Burlington, and assistant superintendent is to be Robert L. Cheatham. ? ? ? Elmer Parnelt of Maxton has recently become manager of Home Furniture Co. here. replacing Elmore Stanton, who has been moved to Red Springs. ? ? ? Miss Sarah Elizabeth Niven. widely and a I'fectionately known as "Miss Lizzie." died in Pinehurst Convalescent Home Saturday morning alter being ill for several years. ? ? ? Mr. and Mrs. Carlton E. Niven anounce the birth of a daughter, February 23 at Moore County Hospital ? ? * Cpl. Jimmy Sinclair of Fort Bragg and Miss Jane Sinclair of Flora Macdonald College spent the week end with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. N B Sinclair. 5 years ago/ February 25,1965 Dr. R.M. Jordan was elected president of the Hoke High Booster Club at a meeting Thursday night. He succeeds John Scott Poole ? ? ? The Raeford Woman's Club this week announced plans for a horse show to be held here in May at the fairgrounds. The affair, believed to be the first in Hoke County history, will become an annual event if successful, the club announced * * * Jim Taylor editorializes on the fact that Hoke County will have little chance of having a resident judge under the proposed new district court system if put in the district with much larger Cumberland. 4The earth isn't big enough for both of ut' ft / 1* tuh Plays Of Thornton Wilder Get Revival This Season By Laurie Telfair Thornton Wilder is enjoying something of a revival these days with the Bragg Playhouse staging of "The Skin of Our Teeth" as their entry to the Third Army tournament of plays. They did a good job on the comedy, which is a difficult play to produce. Several people from Raeford went over to see it. but I haven't heard any comment Irom them about the play. Also W'ilder's "Our Town" is due for a television airing sometime this season. A group of theatre notables, including Helen Hayes, are producing some of the great American plays as f>0 minute specials. They chose Ben Hecht's "Front Page" as one of the programs and "Our Town" for another. While his techniques seem fairly ordinary now. Wilder was a pioneer in staging and pla\ construction. "Our Town", which won a Pulitzer in 1938. was set on a bare stage with the actors wandering up to the stage through the audience No attempt was made at realism and the stage manager a leading character, talked directly to the audience. "The Skin of Our Teeth", also a Pulitzer Prize winner (1942). has a conventional three - walled living room setting, but no effort is put forth for realism In fact, the players step in and out oi character, commenting to the audience on the roles they are performing in the play, litis is not particularly unusual now but it was revolutionary when the play was llrst produced Although the play is almost 30 years old. it still seems remarkably timely in its content. Of course. Wilder built it on a theme of mankind through the ages of adversity, a theme that is not likely to become outmoded. As in "Our Town", he maintains a faith in humanity and the abilitv of mankind to overcome impossible odds. Considering the time at which he wrote the two plays, coming at the end ot a long and devesting depression and at the beginning of a horrifying world war, he expressed considerably more trust in humanity than do present writers. Wilder is not a prolific writer He produced three plays in 1962 front a proposed series ot 14 one act plays on the ages of man and the seven deadly aim called "Plays for Bleeker Street". He hat also written two other three act plays. His first novel, "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" in 1928 also was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Since then, he has written two other novels. Wilder was bom in Madison, Wis. in 1897 but as the son of missionaries, he spent much of his childhood in China. He attended college at Oberlin and at Yale University. STORIES BEHIND WORDS by William S. Penfield Stickler About Trifles The practice is now outlawed, but it once was common for men to settle a quarrel by means of a duel. The two parties who were to engage in combat appointed seconds who made the arrangements, including the type of weapons to be used. These seconds were known also by another name, "sticklers" ?anangers. from the Middle English word "stightlen," to ji range. The lives of the two combatants were at stake, therefore, the sticklers weie understandably careful to see that the rules of duelling were followed closely. \nyone unusually meticulous about procedure in matters of lit lie importance was compared to a stickler and was said to be "a -tickler about trifles." Slave The Slavs originally lived north of the Carpathian Mountains in northeastern Europe Great numbers of them moved south and west into other areas of Europe. This spreading out weakened them militarily and left them open to conquest. Kentually the Slavs were conquered and vast numbers were sold into bondage over most of Europe. Thus the name "Slav," or "Sclavus" in Latin, became a synonym for a person in bondage. The word took several forms in German - sklave, sclav and sclave. Sclave was the form that entered English. Later the "c" was dropped,giving us the word "slave." Creek Philosopher Dear editar I had planned to start up my tractor yesterday morning in preparation for the coming of spring but caught myself" just in time -? not going to catch me polluting the air unnecessarily with a gasoline engine, it's had enough with people smok ng cigarettes and eating onions ?? so instead I came inside the house and looked over a newspaper I'd been saving, although what I'm going to do with it when I get through reading it I don't know. You can't bum it without polluting the air or throw it away without littering the ground Understand. I'm not suggesting that publishing a newspaper is i prime cause of littering in his country, but if you can't "ind something wrong about whatever anybody is doing these days, you're behind the times. m Anyway, in this newspapei which I don't know what to dc with when I'm through with I ran across an article by a psychiatrist who is a membei of the National Commission or the Causes and Prevention ol Violence who says, and l'nr sure you and I may havr trouble following him on thit line of thinking, that one way to cut down on crime and violence is to license newspapei reporters and writers. That's right. He wants the government to license you newspaper people to assure the public, he says, "that the practitioners of the art are qualified practitioners."' As you know, psychiatrists are licensed and therefore qualified, which is tlie reason why in nearly ?ny murder trill the prosecutor can - find a psychiatrist qualified to say the murder is sane and the defense can find one qualified to say he's insane, in a really bi| trial, you can get two or three or even four on each side with exactly the opposite diagnoses of the same guy. Where would psychiatry be today without licenses? Where would the country be? Probably filled with crime and violence. I'll tell you. if we want to put a stop to crime and violence, we ought to have every newspaper and radio and television reporter in this country psychoanalyzed in the morning. But be sure to see two. so the verdict will be a toss up. Yours faithfully. J A Just One Thing After Another By Carl Go?rch If you ever asked the larte John Brapw for information, he wouldn't rest until lac found what you wanted if he didn't happen to know himself. For example, one day we casually mentioned the fact that we had no idea where the word barbecue came from. John said he wasn't sure, but when he returned to his home in Washington, N.C. we received tire following information from him: "From a third rate encyclopedia I found that the French expression in barbe-a-queue and that it means from snout to tail. "Than I consulted Webster, and while he does not give it as Barbe-a-queue, he says the word comes from a native name in Guiana. He says also that the name applies to the frame oh which the meat or Rah is roasted, and to my surprise extends the word to signify a frame used for sleeping, as well as 'a floor on which coffee-beans, etc., are dried.' "Ordinarily, I would have let the matter end there, but something urged me to look further and in the library I found Joseph T. Shipley's 'Dictionary of Word Origins'. This is what Mr. Shipley says: " 'This pleasant festivity, also the vert) for the kind of cooking, was originally an American Indian name for a stick set on two uprights, for spitting the animal to be roasted. The Spanish found it in Haiti, called it barbacoa, the French spelled it Babracot when they found it in Guiana. Since the entire animal is often hung to be cured or roasted, some French (humorists, no doubt) derive the word from French barbe-a-queue, beard to tail.'" r Near the outskirts of Sanford recently, I saw a boy about nine or ten years old walking along the road. He hailed me wilh the customary thumbing sign. ?o I stopped and asked him to get in. "Where are you going?" 1 asked him. "Home," he replied. "I live about a mile down the road." "Where you been?" "School." "How do you like it?" "All right." And then, alter a moment's thought, he added somewhat bitterly: "That is. it'd be all right it the teachers didn't think they knew everything there is to be known in the world." Sometliing for you to worry about: Q. How many shoes does it take to shoe a pair of oxen? A. It takes sixteen shoes to shoe a pair of oxen. (Note: this is not a typographical error. Sixteen shoes is the correct answer.) Modern drug stores, with all their varied contents, have nothing on the "general" store of the 18th century. Some of the requisites of a "sortable" store of that century included nails, carpenter's tools, hoes, axes, linings, powder and shot, coffee, sugar, rum, hats, stockings, dress goods and wearing apparel. When Andrew Jackson was studying law under Spruce McKay, Rowan lawyer, this record went down into history: "He was the most roaring, rollicking, game-cocking, horse-racing, card-playing, mischievous fellow that ever lived in Salisbury." He was about 20 at the time. That should bring some consolation to you mothers who are tearing your hair over the pranks of growing boys todav. CLIFF BLUE ... People & Issues GOVERNOR SCOTT ? Many Tar Hells are now commanding Governor Scott, Senator Erwin and Senator Jordan and the other members of the North Carolina delegation in Congress who have joined in the battle to preserve our neighborhood system of schools, and bring a halt to the involuntary busing of school children. We suspect that this is one issue that before the battle is over will know no North nor South, no East nor West, or race or creed. Many are wondering why President Nixon who now has tremendous prestige does not exert more courageous leadership in this subject if he really wants to live up to his statement on the issue as he outlined his position as a candidate for president when he spoke in Charlotte in 1968. HERE AT HOME - The brutal and beastly murder of the wife and children of Captain McDonald at Fort Bragg last week points up the need for something to be done in North Carolina as well as in the nation to make our laws more attuned to the protection of honest, law ? abiding citizens rather than going over - board in deference to the criminals. There is certainly no place in our system of law and justice for police brutality, but we need to make sure that our law enforcement people will not be held back by unnecessary technicalities in safeguarding the rights and lives of people and property. We need to make sure that our courts are prepared to take care of the criminals dockets without undue delay and render judgments that fit the crimes. LEAVING EARLY - The Hillsboro, Oregon, Argus reports: "It is shameful that crime has gotten so bad in Washington, D.C., that the Library of Congress is now closing one ? half hour earlier each day so that employees may leave at 4:30 instead of S !?.m. One of the reasons given or the change is that workers want tb leave the crime ? ridden Capitol Hill before dark. This is certainly understandable in view of the overwhelming amount of crime and dangers involved in Washington, a city in which all Americans wish to take pride." An aroused public must see to II that the criminals will not be given powder ? puff sentences for serious offenses, an'' tlwt North Carolina shall not become a haven for dope peddlers and those without regard for law and justice. The Attorney General's Department in Raleigh is to be commended for its diligence in working to uncover and bring to justice the peddlers of dope and narcotics. PARTY OATH - We note that the Democratic Party in Virginia is considering junking thf party loyalty oath and substituting in its place a profession by the prospective voters that by balloting in the party primary they intend to support the nominee in the general election. The suggestion appears to be reasonable and in order since last year a federal court ruled that the loyalty oath violated the constitutional guarantee ol a secret ballot. REGISTRATION - The latest registration statistics, which are of December I. 1969, reveal that there were 1,867,327 voters registered in North Carolina, with 1,415,432 being Democrats and 400,014 being Republicans. The American party had 6,795, and the Independents and those with no party affiliation, 45,086. The white voters accounted for 1,571,508 with the non ? while totalling 285,745 and Indians and others 10,074. Mecklenburg County had the largest registration with 125,501; Guildord next with 102,625. Camden had the smallest registration, 1,332, with Clay second from the bottom with 1,361. STATEWIDE -? Insotar as state ? wide races are concerned the May 2 primaries in North Carolina in both the Democratic and Republican parties will be a very quiet affair. There will be one statewide race for a seat on the State Court of Appeals with Democrat Harry C. Martin of Asheville seeking the nomination for the seat now held by Democratic incumbent R.A. (Fred) Hedrick who is also running for a full term on the court. There will be hot races for the State House and Senate in several districts over the state This is the year to elect sheriffs and with the tiling deadline not until March 20 for county offices there will no doubt be several interesting contests for county and district offices. ^/ie ^Vlew4 - journal NATIONAL NEWSPAPOt TUM mCTT it m ma wmm M?-HTI >55^ ASSOCIATIO SOCIATION Published Every Thursday at Raeford, N. C. 28376 * 119 W. Elwood Avenue Subscription Rates In Advance Per Year - S4.00 6 Months - S2.25 3 Months - SI.25 PAUL DICKSON Publisher-Editor SAM C. MORRIS General Manager LAURIE TELFAIR Reporter MRS. PAUL DICKSON Society Editor Second-C'Uu Postage Piid st Raeford, N. C. Your Award - Winning Community Newspaper "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness " THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 26. 1970
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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Feb. 26, 1970, edition 1
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