Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / May 22, 1969, edition 1 / Page 2
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A More Gentle Breeze? EDITORIALS Never Forget That These Editorials Are The Opinion Of One Man __ —-—-And He May Be Wrong About The Draft President Nixon’s suggested adminis trative changes in the operation of the military draft are an improvement over the stupid mess the nation has suffered for much too long, but more — much more — needs to be done. Nixon’s plan to draft 19-year-old boys first will relieve same of the pressure on coliege-age boys who have developed into a national powder-keg largely be cause of either their cowardice or their sincere view that the nation’s position in Vietnam is morally unsupportaible. For whatever cause the specter of the draft board has been a disrupting in fluence over young men just when they are at that age when they feel their first real surge of freedom. But ultimately something better than a gambler’s chance must be devised to supply the manpower every modern na tion must have fox its own protection. We hold that a hit-or-miss gambler’s choice which taps one boy and leaves another untouched is immoral, and we. accept the certainty that a purely volun teer effort would not supply the man power needs of our nation. But a combination of universal mili tary training and a highly paid and high ly trained volunteer corps, coming from the universally called up group could do the job if properly handled. Every young man needs a taste of ,military life. It will make a better man of those who have character and it will make no worse that minority who have no character.' If every young man knew to a positive certainty that be was go ing to be called up on his 18th birthday for one year of service — in peace as well as in war — a lot of the anxieties our youth for the past generation would be eliminated. Then some of that minion and a half each year would find the various servic es to their taste. As usual the majority would not, like military life. But those young ,men whose talents and tastes did lean them in the direction of a military career could then be coaxed to become volunteers with excellent pay, the finest educational opportunities, full develop ment of their potential and enhanced retirement benefits. This combination would cost less and produce a better armed force than we have today and it would be fair in that every able bodied young man would have an exposure and none would be accidentally ex empted. The Grossest Inequity One of the consuming passions of centralized government is the belief that some “expert” in a distant office knows better what each town and county in the nation needs than the people in those scattered communities. And it is a Utter paradox that these bureaucrats who worship at the shrine of egalitarianism deliberately practice the grossest inequities when they are given god-like power over the distribution of tax funds that are taken from us all on the same basis. North Carolina is a horrible example of this abuse in two of the largest de partments of government: Education and Welfare. A combination of bureaucrats in Raleigh and Washington has develop ed paternalistic formulas for distribu tion of money in these two vast depart ments. Even tiie men charged with the re sponsibility of administering this unfair distribution do not understand what they are doing, much lew why. But the pretty htttle theory behind their unreasoning is that “rich” states and “rich” counties should be penalized while “poor” states and “poor” counties must be patronized. And all of this is done in such a com plex manner that quite frequently the local officiate most directly concerned with these departments of government v-f. ■■ • monotonous regularity: “If you’ll just put up a few more thousand local dollars we can get a lot more state and federal money for this project or that program. The emphasis is not often placed where it should be on whether there is a genuine need to expand or to institute such projects and programs. Commissioners are told that it is “good business” to put up a thousand local tax dollars' when that thousand win attract ten thousand federal tax dollars to the county. And all too frequently boards of commissioners accept this argument and scratch up that extra thousand whe ther the county really needs that $11, 000 project or not And this generally steals a thousand dollars from the budget of some county department that is not blessed, or curs ed, with the “benefits” of matching funds. Naturally this generates frictions between those departments who “git” and those who don’t “git” It also quite frequently leaves departments with bad ly slashed budgets that desperately need more money to provide badly needed services. jbvery orancn ox 00m ine state ami federal governments that have funds for distribution to cities and counties should! simply allocate those funds on a per capita basis to the governing boards of those counties and let those govern ing boards spend such funds on the proj ects that they fed. to be in the best interest of their county. But the bureaucrats in Raleigh and: Washington will fight to their last drop of red! ink against any such proposal since it is an (article of their faith that they know more about what each town and county needs than the people who live in those communities. If one county wanted to build better roads with its funds and another better schools the levelling process would force all local officials to ultimatey do the right thing with the money they received and think of all the bureau crats who could be freed to do some productive work. are not even aware of what is going on. And many of those who do under stand are afraid to scream for fear that another twist' of that paternalistic little formula will further emasculate their own budgets. Such an inequitable system sees sev en North Carolina counties allocating over $1 of their total tax rate for schools. (Craven, Granville, Henderson, Lenoir,. Mecklenburg, Scotland and Washington.) And on the other extreme we find 17 counties that are spending less than 60 cents of their total tax rate on schools, and five that are spending less than 50 cents! And due to the same type of abuse the spread of county wel fare levies is as great. How any person' of basic morality sitting in the high echelons of either education or welfare can decide that a child’s education in one county, or the feeding of a child in one county should be treated' differently than in another paun# is completely beyond compre hension. Yet this practice as between^ state, and between counties within each state is not only permitted but is order ed by the highest authorities in both field&i PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS > *V JACK RIDER last I was understandably Just a trifle more tfran taken bade by the prices involved in the opening of bids for Lenoir County’s new hospital, mere had been a steady patter of ednyersa tion and softening news stories about the terrible toll of inflation, but I can not accept excuses of this kind, since from the outset of planning for this hospital this same tune has been droned into the ears of all who were involved in the planning. TUB gimp lift answer is vnai une Hos pital has been overdesigned and the Lenoir County taxpayers are stuck with, it because it is too late in the day and it would be much too expensive to send the architect back to the drawing boards for a plan that would be within the money ear-marked for this project. This is not the first, nor the last, nor the worst instance of over-design: to hit Le noir County taxpayers to the pocket book. It is, however, the biggest blow to dollars and cents. The $600,000 ele mentary school to East Kinston is the worst example of over-design. This project started out three years ago as a $350,000 gleam to the school board’s eye and wound up as a $600,000 incite to the taxpayers’ eyes. Just 11 months ago to Nash County bids for their 300-bed (all private bed) hospital amounted to $8,495,627. Now Lenoir Countians seemed to be relaxed and accepting the rape that .is going to see them tapped oUt for more than $10 million for a 285-bed1 hospital. Inflation there is but not to that degree and to so short a period. For a large part of the past 21 years since I came back to Kinston I have ibeen1 involved in the effort to get a more adequate medical facility for Le noir County. I have knots on my head and ulcers in my stomach from the'ir ritations and excitements of this effort. And I feel that the building committee has not kept faith with me, and much more importantly they have not kept faith with the taxpayers of Lenoir County in permitting this over-design. But the expensive little bastard has now been left on the county’s doorstep and we'll just have to manage somehow to take care of it, because we cannot deny its parentage. But in dozens of meetings in every part of the county the building committee and myself and many others told the people that only $5,775,000 of the $7,775,000 bond issue would be used. Now a helluva lot more than that is already approved for use and 1 have the growing, sickening sensa tion that before the hospital is complet ed they will be wanting even more than the extra $2 million which we promised NOT to spend. . Iirst.off.1he system under which arch itects are paid on the basis of what they gpend is immoral, even if it is legal. What half-witted1 architect would ever make a special effort to design an $& million hospital when he is being paid a fixed per cent of each penny he spends and when he knows that there is: technically if not morally $10,775,000 available for such a project Even an architect has more sense than to under . shoot when tie has such a huge and jprof itable target as that to shoot at None ever has, none ever will. But building committees are charged with the re wmmt'
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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May 22, 1969, edition 1
2
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