Editorials
Bucks are learning
the right values
Friday night, the gates on Hoke High Stadium will clank open,
peanut and soft drink vendors will assemble, program salesmen will
position themselves and loyal fans, who have not left town for the
Labor Day weekend, will file in to cheer the opening of another
Buck football season.
Prior to the kickoff against South View, anticipation will build.
The fans know there have been too few winning teams at Hoke
High lately, and this could be the year that changes.
Coach Tom Jones has had one of the best turnouts in recent
memory and will dress out more than 40 on the varsity squad in
cluding 17 returning starters.
Hopefuls queuing
for race debate
By Cliff Blue
CANDIDA! E S . . . S i x
Democratic candidates for the
presidency have agreed to a series
of nationwide debates this fall.
The candidates responded to a
request from 100 House
Democrats. Rep. Charles E.
Schumer (D.N.Y.) said he will ask
the House Democratic Caucus to
sponsor the debates.
We think it is quite fitting that
questions be asked the candidates.
ALCOHOLISM. ..About 20
states have passed laws requiring
insurers to offer special coverage
for hospital and or outpatient
treatment of alcoholism.
Only seven states mandated such
benefits in 1975.
New York's law, signed recently
requires outpatient treatment
coverage for at least 60 days a
year.
Some pending federal bills
would force federal workers'
health insurance firms to under
write alcoholics' hospitalization.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Association dropped such
coverage for U.S. employees last
year because other insurers weren't
selling it.
However, next year, it plans to
offer thousands of its major cor
porate customers a new
"Substance abuse benefit."
Coverage for treatment of drug
and alcohol abuse will include
stays at residential rehabilitation
centers.
The insurer says it was "Able to
sell this coverage to cover over
100,000 people in a two year
market test in three areas.
MEDICARE. ..The Medicare
system will survive "to meet the
needs of the elderly in the future,"
predicts Health and Human Ser
vices Secretary Heckler. She says
an agency task force is studying
ways to prevent the financially
troubled health-care program from
going bankrupt.
HEAT WAVF. RECORD. In
my opinion Fayetteville and the
Sandhills walked away with the
heat wave record with
Fayetteville's 110 degrees and
Aberdeen close behind with 108
degrees.
FAIRCLOTH . ..Lauch
Faircloth got state-wide publicity
over his plane wreck last year, but
we are sure that he had rather do
without that kind!
Faircloth and his associates were
mightly lucky to escape without
serious injury or death when the
People and Issues
plane in which they were riding
went down moments after leaving
Spruce Pine in the mountains of
North Carolina.
Aboard the plane in addition to
Faircloth were Brad Cone; the
pilot, Leighton Elliot and co-pilot
Manuel Sowers.
Lauch Faircloth is one of several
candidates for the Democratic
nomination for governo- in 1984.
DANGEROUS
PRECEDENT... The recent jury
decision in Kansas City, awarding
half a million dollars to a female
journalist who charged she was
discriminated against on the basis
of sex is understandable in today's
reform climate. But it's a
precarious precedent.
From what we read, the female
commentator was removed from
one job and given another by her
employer. She then quit and sued
for a large sum of money.
A mostly female jury then
awarded her half a million dollars.
She claimed she also had been
treated unfairly. The station
denied it, claimed it uses commen
tators with the greatest appeal to
listeners, that she rated poorly in
polls.
The exact truth may never be
known. A serious question is rais
ed by such a fat verdict, however.
Why shouldn't a station or
newspaper be able to change
employees from one job to another
in what they see as the best interest
of the business?
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Early press reviews have noted that Jones is changing the offen
sive tactics by shifting from a veer attack to the Power-I. There are
also two good quarterbacks vying for the starting slot, and indica
tions are that this year's team could be explosive.
One thing that has not been changed this year by Jones and his
staff is their philosophy of coaching.
Included in the philosophy is the teaching of a healthy desire to
win; however, the other lessons being taught by the Buck coaches
will stick with team members much longer than the memory of
whether this year was a 10-0 season or a repeat of last year's 3-7.
Buck coaches are not only working on developing fundamental
skills like blocking and tackling, but staff members are also more
importantly stressing that players work together as a unit, and that
they play the game cleanly and fairly.
The value of winning can come later. It will be drummed into this
year's team members for the rest of their lives, particularly if they
pursue a career in athletics.
After high school, the game becomes a multi-million dollar
business. Winning is an economic necessity. Athletes are no longer ^
allowed the luxury of playing for the sport of it, and performances ?
are improved with steroids, stimulants and pain killers.
For those who continue to play football, the principles learned at
Hoke High may never be taught again.
For those who never play organized athletics again, the ethics be
ing taught on the Hoke playing fields will be needed in any task they
undertake.
Whatever the outcome of this year's Hoke High season, it will be
a comfort to know that the coaching staff has put a price limit on Q
winning.
If they succeed in their efforts to instill in the players the values of
teamwork and fair play, then the coaches will ensure that the Bucks
will have a winning season, no matter what the final tally.
We commend the Hoke High coaches for their approach. It is
refreshing to know that Buck players are being taught to love the
game for its sport, and not for its financial promise.
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THE dm CHEERING.
HE'S TAKING A V CTOR/ LAP.
HE MUST HAVE WON
THE GOLD!
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Letters To The Editor
70-year-old marches
Dear Editor:
On Saturday, August 27, my
dad, who will be 70 years old in
January, joined the quarter million
Americans in the "march" on
Washington to commemorate
Martin Luther King Day.
Yes, he is a minority. He is one
of those who believes in freedom,
equality, and human dignity, and
he has been fighting for those
rights all his life. He has been
scorned, ridiculed, and even
ostracized at times, but he con
tinued to fight for his beliefs.
When he told me that he was go
ing to Washington, it made me feel
guilty for not going. ! warned him
about the heat and the crowds. He
said he would have water with him
and told me not to worry.
It is hard not to worry about a
seventy-year-old man who was not
too well only a year ago.
I certainly admire my dad and
the quarter million other
Americans who went to
Washington and hope this march
acts as a catalyst in achieving "the
rights to life, liberty, and the pur
suit of happiness" that the
founders of this nation held so
dear.
Sincerely,
Naomi Johnson
Puppy Creek
Philosopher
Dear editor:
A lot has been in the news lately
about Col. Kaddafi, the Libyan
dictator who has been producing
all manner of trouble and misery
for years, but he has now gone too
far.
Kaddafi was interviewed on
television the other day right when
his Libyan planes were bombing
neighboring defenseless Chad.
When asked why he was bomb
ing Chad he looked straight into
the camera and said: "I'm not
bombing Chad. Those are not my
planes."
Aside from the evil of un
provoked bombing of a defenseless
country. Col. Kaddafi is giving
political lying a bad name.
A political lie everybody knows
is a lie is completely useless and its
reckless employment endangers
one of the mainstays of politics.
As practically every political
campaign since elections were in
vented has proved, people don't
mind being lied to if it's done art
fully. But put that too! in the
hands of a guy like Col. Kaddafi
and all the fun is taken out of it.
An immature politician is one
who will tell a lie without first
checking up on how many people
will believe it. He doesn't last long.
A good politician is one who (
won't lie unless he figures he has a
good chance of getting by with it.
He gets re-elected.
A superior politician is one who
won't lie unless he knows it'll he at
least 50 years before he's found
out. He goes down in history.
If you say nobody who occa
sionally lies should be elected, then
where on earth could you find
anybody qualified to run? The I
truth may make you free but it
won't keep you in office.
On the other hand, the number
of politicians who have lied to
voters is offset by the number of
voters who've lied to politicians.
Yours faithfully,
T A
Cat checks out for cooler temperatures
By Warren Johnston
Our cat was missing for a couple of days last week.
We were worried sick.
On the second day of his absence, we frantically re-checked
his usual napping spots, and opened all the closed doors,
thinking that he may have been inadvertently locked in some
rarely used portion of the house. There was no cat.
"I think something has happened to the cat. He never stays
gone like this," my wife said.
"He'll show up," I said, exuding confidence. 1 had just
carefully inspected the sides of the nearby roads.
Although we were not sure when he had last been seen, the
cat apparently left during the spell of 110-degree weather.
My wife noted that he had been complaining a lot about the
heat and had threatened to spend the rest of the summer in
Alaska, which seemed to be the only cool spot in the country.
It was a silly statement for a cat to make, and we dismissed
it. After all, how could a cat possibly get from North Carolina
to Alaska?
"He's been hanging around with some cats from Ft.
Bragg," my wife said. "Maybe he's hitched a ride on a
military transport."
The assumption was absurd, and we decided that the cat
*
The Puppy Papers
had just gone to visit a friend with an air conditioned house.
In the process of remodeling our house, we had not con
sidered air conditioning a priority item, until last week. We
had been warned, but we rejected the advice as being tainted
by bourgeois comfort seekers.
"You better put in air conditioning. It gets pretty hot in
August," they said.
However, we have 12-foot ceilings, and we had installed an
attic fan. Surely that would be enough.
"People got along just fine before air conditioning. You
never heard them complaining," we had said.
As the temperature soared over 105?, and the air sucked in
by our attic fan felt like the breath of a blast furnace, we knew
they had been right, and that all those people before air condi
tioning never complained because they died from heat exhaus
tion.
As we sat fanning ourselves on the front porch, hoping that
a breeze would blow, my wife recalled that the cat had said
something about it being a last straw when the water in his
drinking bowl began to boil.
Then the weather broke. It rained all night. The ther
mometer dropped into the 60's.
The next morning the cat arrived for breakfast at his usual
time, acting as if he had never been away.
He looked a little rough around the edges, a bit like he had
been on a two-day toot.
"Where have you been?" I asked the cat. "We have been
worried sick."
The cat only purred and asked for another helping of
creamed tuna.
I roused my wife who was still sleeping, and gave her the
news that the cat had come home.
"Oh, where has he been?" she asked, wiping the sleep from
her eyes.
"He wouldn't say, but he seems to have had a good time."
We knew the cat could not have had that good of time,
because he had been the guest of Friends of the Animals two
years earlier and was surgically altered.
Days have now passed since his return. The cat still refuses
to discuss his absence, but he has asked to have fresh salmon
added to his menu, and he has also inquired into the cost of
having an igloo built in the yard. He says he wants to sleep in
it.