Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / April 25, 1963, edition 1 / Page 2
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S; 2’ =T * • ..You've Already Spent This!' Never Forget That These Editorials Are 'the Opinion Of One Man - "i;.1 -.^. ■■ ' And He May Be/Wrong The Gambler Problem Each of us is a gambler, whether it is gambling with seetf 'hi,the soil, money 'in a business venture,* driving in heavy traffic or on making “fptw, fhe hard- way.” Btit there is1 a wi$Kfrange of feeling among us on the specific subject of such types of gambling as one usually associates with card or dice, horse racing or lotteries. A little bingo at a church party is “harm less,” but peeping at hole cards with a few of the1 boys once a week is "sinful” in the minds of some. Betting a dime or a buck a hole on a round of golf is a playful form of relaxation and a way to stimulate conversation around the links, but betting'4! fellow can’t fill an inside straight has some sinister overtones that frighten a good many of our most stalwart citizens. - Of course, to those of us who attempt to be reasonable gambling is exactly like ev ery human habit: Only bad^tyhen carried to extremes. ' Temperance in all thingj' cannot be im proved upon for a way of doing business or relating. The man who drinks beyond his capacity, gambles beyond his means or even plays beyond his strength is making a serious mistake. But there always has been and always will be a percentage of us who refuse to abide by this principle of temperance. Those who waste their lives on drinking, their substance on gambling or their hearts in over-exertion automatically become the concern of assort ed groups of “right-thinking people”; the self-annointed whose sincere purpose is to protect the weak from themselves. This reasoning — noble in sentiment as it may be — is impractical to the point of impossibility. National prohibition should have proved that it is not wise to make nine men criminals in an effort to save one man from his weakness. Laws against the specific kinds of gamb ling that most think of when the. word “gamble” is used are equally bad, equally unenforceable and equally in need of repeal. Soviet Pandora’s Box Some effort is being made in The Krem lin to slam tightly shut the minds of those Russians whose artistic expressions have not been absolutely parallel to the “party line.” But, once opened, the Pandora’s box of education is impossible to close. Russia has moved from a land of 96 cent illiteracy to one of 90 pffi|MtfMJj|iiicy' in one gen eration. This is a‘'revolution within a revolu tion that will ultimately consume the total itarian system which made it possible. Man’s mind |ii^|^B|pprtmentalized to such an extent tliiM^*»rdad education in the physical sciences can be given without soime light creeping into those crevices of the brain where human and cultural values re created. many senses we in America Suffer the :;4s( tfc<i'Soviet»i:iih leaders in America who would slam shut with equal force the American Pandora’s Box that has caused such intellectual defec tion in our own country. Fortunately our system is still geared to permit deviation short of outright treason. In Russia the ground rules of treason are different^ and a “crime against - the state” can be something less than betrayal by es pionage or sabotage. ' Russia’s system is NOT geared to any toi erance of ideas. The dictator cannot operate with “loyal opposition," since in the sem antics of the totalitarian opposition is traitorous in any forth, whether sincerely constructive or utterly destructive. Biff In order to catch up with the world try he has the perfect right to quit * bricklayer, or bartender, or tiny other highly paid Work , The idolatrous enshrinenu cator that some people in sist upon is completely out « erica. "'• . ' jg-i We have every’respect for the educator, but nothing could be more dangerous to our educational system than to make gods out of •men and women'whose immortality is in their good works. 'In further answer to the Hertford County editorialist let it be known that there are "fringe” benefits to being a college profes sor, or even a grade school teacher. • Not the lehst of these is the work day, or the work year. If the teacher worked as many hours in a year as the average person they could expect to earn a great deal more money than even a bricklayer. uui tuuwmuu lias uttu uuicii u(iu d. monumental feather-bedding that is at least as much concerned With sticks and stones as with the minds of students. Working 180 days a year, six hours a day is both a tre mendous waste of talent, plant and most importantly of that most precious com modity: Time. If our Hertford County editor had, been exposed more hours to better teachers he would not have needed to ask for an ex planation of the goodness of our economic system. This Ahoskie writer is the end product of an educational system that is more con cerned with form than with substance. Thcif'pollege professor who"is( less well paid than the bricklayer has the opportun ity to choose between the hard-earned pay check of the artisan and the relatively le$s strenuous job of building the minds of young people. t • ’ The professor does not work in winter freeze, nor summer heat and his pay check, small though it may be, does not stop when it rains, or when mortar freezes, or when there is no construction work. Postmaster General Ed Day is threaten ing to curtail mail service if congress does not give his department all the money it is asking for. When it takes six days for mail to get from New York to Kinston it is hard to imagine what more Day can do than al ready has been done to curtail mail service. Seldom is the time when we can agree with Luther Hodges, but we prefer to feel that it is he who is agreeing with us when he suggests publicly that congress should hot demand one -standard of conduct of oth ers and live by a completely different set of rule«|itself. Hodges disposed of his How- * ard Johnson restaurant holdings when he becamjslecretary of commerce, but his part ner, Everett Jordan, didn’t when he: went to the senate. \4. y~ .. - » . This is the season of the • manufactured crisis when congress is getting ready , to write appropriations bills.' The situation in Laos gets a little lousier, the Mediterannean muddle gets a little more muddy, the Caribbean circus spins in wider circles, the African tribal warfare gets a bit more war-like and, of course, the Russians are about to beat us to the moon, or somewhere. But ftdt info bankruptcy. y • imf\ ] • -i'iiiii.ji 11»mi ...I. n 'ii.;:,i One of the most miserable people is that ness, puttering around the house and being concerned with the problems of his immed* iate family. Then that person develops what lia. sdtfletiraee called a public service psychp sist. That’s when he really geisr miserable. He thought he had headaches paying off the family mortgage, keeping the babies in shoes and a mess of porridge on the 'family board. But when this sheltered type moves into public affairs he suddenly finds out a lot about himself that he never dreamed. Gen* erally he gets this education indirectly, or in such doses as anonymous letters and phone calls, or occasionally- in a letter to the ed* itOr. He will find that his motives,: which he thought was as pure as the driven snow, are selfish and mean; that he has gotten into public affairs either to get a job- for himself, a member of his family or to get more public business for himself or his family. This Sheltered type will also find that he perhaps has a dandy skeleton or two in the family closet. Rumor becomes fact and fact becomes fixed in the minds of the public which is generally quick to believe the ab solute worst about those who do as Gregg Cherry used to say, “Become patriotic enough to serve in time of need." In the face of this kind of public distrust and the slings and arrows of outraged citi zens it is small wonder that government is conducted as well as it is. My experience is that the overwhelming majority of these patriots who serve are doing just that and generally at a considerable sacrifice on their part, both in dollars and in utter mental and physical fatigtie. There is, of course, that venal small per cent who do serve only for their own selfish purposes, arid the'y are the type that cause all to Come under auto matic suspicion. But even in Rome, Caesar’s wife was supposed to be above suspicion. Some of my friends who have found the courage recently to band together in the Kinston Conservative Club are suffering some of this public service misery. They sincerely believe that an anchor must be dropped to keep our government from drift ing onto the shoals of state socialism. And I agree with them in principle, but in public affairs principle and practice often cannot be bed fellows. This sounds Unethically contradictory. But public affairs is not much different than private affairs in that it is the “Art of the Possible,” an area of compromise, where seldom is found unanimous agreement on any project or proposition. Most of us would like to run our business on one basis but lack of equipment, capital, time or labor forces us to make shift with what we have. In public affairs, as well as in private the individual must labor with his conscience. There are times when it becomes impossible morally to accept a conpromise. In public affairs that is a decision that has to be made regularly, whether to take that part of what one feels is .good, and accept that part one feels bad or to reject both and hope that time will bridge the gap between the ex tremes. But that public'servant who mounts the lily white charger and stands on true blue principle is not, likely to have much success in winning friends, influencing pro jects or in'getting re-elected.
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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April 25, 1963, edition 1
2
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