PHOTO BY BILL FAVtR
Take time to see the detail and beauty of flowers.
Seeing Takes Time
BY HILL FAVER
Sometimes ii is interesting to notice how much you
sec along the roadside when some
one else is driving.
Your normal concentration on
the roadway and traffic is broken
s. and your eye catches all sorts of
J features and activities that come
into view. And it is surely evident
in a speeding car that seeing takes
time.
When you catch a glimpse of
something you would like to see in
more depth, you arc past and it is
gonc.This is particularly evident during these hot sum
mer days when birds are usually in cover and flowers
are abundant. We see a small bird and wonder what
species it could be. We "see" a yellow flower and
wonder what it is and how it got there. Few of us take
the time to investigate fully and to learn something
about the bird or the flower.
Georgia O'Kcefe, the southwestern artist noted for
her paintings of flowers, clouds, and desert relies,
wrote:
Still? in a way ? nobody sees
A flower really.
It is so small ?
we haven't time.
And to see takes time.
Like having a friend takes time.
When we do take time to see a flower, we arc
amazed at the detail and color and textures. Our
thoughts go back to boUiny or biology classes in high
school and college when we learned about pistils and
stamens and stigma and styles and sepals and calyx,
most of which we have forgotten. Perhaps we should
just look and enjoy and finally see the flower as a
thing of beauty brought about by the miracle of plant
life in our spccial place along the shore. Take time to
see!
GUEST COLUMN
University Tenure Decisions
Affect All North Carolinians
BY PAUL RICH
In terms of North Carolina's
cconomy and the lives of its citi
zens, university tenure affects far
more of the slate's families than is
usually realized. Yes, tenure. The
word comes from a Latin word
meaning "to hold," and in some cas
es, it might be described as the legal
equivalent of a perpetual hammock
and-cool-drink.
The tenure issue impacts North
Carolina because of its enormous in
vestment in higher education. There
arc more than 125 colleges and uni
versities in the state, including 53
four-year institutions. The Chronicle
of Higher Education reports that to
tal faculty at N.C. colleges and uni
versities total 9,675, of which 4,353
are tenured. The overwhelming
number of these tenured teachers arc
among the more than 5,000 full and
associate professors.
There are 351,990 students en
rolled in N.C. colleges and universi
ties. The combined public and pri
vate higher-education budget is
nearly S4 billion; public institutions
spend more than S2.4 billion. So any
policy which may, in effect, protect
incompetent professors and reward
research achievements over teaching
has significant economic and public
policy repercussions for N.C. tax
payers.
Tenure is not just an issue in
North Carolina. A recent article in
the Australian and New Zealand
weekly Campus Review bemoans
the paralysis created in universities
by the "taldads." Taldads, it turns
out, are the "tenure, academic, lame
ducks, and dead-wood" in that part
of the world.
Taldads enjoy jobs for life ? and
according to the article, this adverse
ly influences government funding
and donations. Donors and legisla
tures confronted by blatant shirkers
are skeptical about the incessant re
quests for ever more money to re
duce teacher-student classroom ra
tios and buy exccllcncc.
The New Zealand professor who
makes the complaint asserts that the
vacuum caused by the taldads has to
be filled by hard-working academic
colleagues. The damage, however,
remains a shameful secret: "...We do
not talk about these matters openly;
instead, we just refer to it with a
semaphore of nods, winks, and eu
phemisms."
Tenure seems to many people to
be an unwarranted piece of job pro
tection. Remember when you were a
youngster and a statement of dubi
ous value had to be confirmed by an
extra-special pledge? "Cross my
heart 10 times and hope to die!" wus
one I remember on the playground.
Now imagine if an average em
ployer was asked 10 lake an cxira
pledge like this: "Do you triple
swear to obey the law of the land in
employing me?" Or consider elected
officials being sworn into office.
Should they have to say "I further
swear to take extra seriously the
oath I've just sworn"?
Tenure rules resemble playground
vows. They attempt, usually suc
cessfully, to bind universities to
promises of fair employment. Of
course, in practice this promise of
"fair employment" becomes a
promise of "life employment," since
grounds for dismissal of tenured
professors are limited and heavily
regulated.
Tenure can paralyze an education
al system. In an essay entitled
"Democracy in Education," the
much-misunderstood philosopher of
education John Dewey wrote: "The
system which makes no great de
mands upon originality, upon inven
tion, upon the continuous expression
of individuality, works automatically
to put and to keep the more incom
petent teachers in the school."
Dewey goes on to warn that the best
brains will not work where they
must be preoccupied with confonni
iy
In practice, the tenure system re
quires a long period of conformity
an servitude by young professionals,
whose chances of long-term em
ployment completely depend on
pleasing the older faculty. Worse
still, suspicion grows that tenure is
cynically being used to balance bud
gets ? junior faculty are allowed to
teach for years, at relatively low pay,
and then are discharged for lacking
tenurablc qualities. Their places arc
then taken by younger, cheaper
classroom fodder.
The historian Herman Home, in
an essay on George Taylor Win
ston's presidency of the University
of North Carolina in the early 1890s,
relates that Winston was at the State
Fair one year. Someone chided him
about the lack of a university display
at the fair. He looked around for a
moment, waved his hands toward
some passing students, and re
marked, "Behold!"
President Winston had his values
well ordered. He knew what the pur
pose of the university was. It's time
that; along with the emphasis on fac
ulty privileges and faculty benefits,
there was as fervent an emphasis on
the students and the quality of in
struction.
We arc now in the midst of a great
national debate about medical treat
ment. To the medical profession's
credit, few doctors have said that
this discussion was only for physi
cians. One would hope professional
educators would receive criticism
about tenure and teaching in a simi
larly open fashion.
Rich is an alumnus of Harvard
University, a lloover Institution Visi
ting Scholar at Stanford University,
and an adjust scholar of the John
Locke Foundation.
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CiMM THE MACON
4705 Wrightsville Ave.
Wilmington, NC 28403
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Sewer System Could Make
Holder i Like Jersey Shore
To the editor:
Everyone is aware of, and vitally
interested in, the fate of Holdcn
Beach as the overcrowding issue is
debated. I have attended a number
of meetings of the Holdcn Beach
Properly Owners Association and
would like to address the issue of
septic systems versus building a
sewage disposal system. I am a
chemist with 30 years' industrial ex
perience. I also spent three months
starting up die sewage disposal plant
at the U.S. Military Academy in
West Point, N.Y.
The real estate brokers at Holdcn
Beach have expressed their support
for a sewage disposal system, claim
ing this will solve the problem of
overcrowding and resulting pollu
tion. They would have us believe
that all the waste we generate will
magically disappear. Nothing could
be further from the truth.
The solid waste we generate ends
up as a solid waste by-product of the
sewage disposal plant. It has to be
disposed of, and is not odor-free. A
working sewage disposal plant is not
odor-frcc and generates more waste
than a septic system. Operating one
requires careful control and is an ex
pensive operation. It is what we
have to do when we become so
overcrowded thai our septic sys
tems, which arc simple and do a
good job, arc overloaded to the point
where nature is insulted and more
capacity is required.
Installing a sewage disposal sys
tem will increase all the problems
associated with overcrowding. One
need only study the problems expe
rienced at the New Jersey shore to
see what life will be like at Holdcn
Beach. Overcrowding reduces the
quality of life for everyone. The so
lution is to live within the bound
aries set by nature, not try to extend
them.
We live in South New Jersey near
the shore, and also pass one of
Philadelphia's newest sewage dis
posal plants on the way to the air
port. In the summer, the stink is nau
seating. In the 21 years we have
lived in New Jersey, we have been
to the shore less than 15 times. We
have seen overcrowding and waste
pollute die water, soil the beaches
r
and red uc c the quality of life.
Crowding brings out the worst in us.
It will happen to Holdcn Beach if
we allow it.
My wife and I purchased a home
on Holdcn Beach as a place for our
family. Wc admire and respect the
culture wc have discovered in the
Brunswick Islands Low Country. It
is a good place for people and fami
lies. We have made fine Southern
friends and hope to become part of
this community when wc retire. It is
our hope and prayer that this place
that has been graced in a special
way is not destroyed for material
gain.
A.E. Schiavone
Indian Mills, N.J.
'Batten Down '
To the editor:
"The real gridlock is not be
tween Democrats and Republi
cans, nor between the White llouse
and Congress, but between politi
cians and the people they repre
sent."
?Former Sen. Herman Rudman
Although the final verdict is not
in, it is beginning to look more omi
nous. Obviously, wc all want to sec
more jobs and the deficit decrease,
now when our Congress split on
President Clinton's economic pack
age 50-50, with Vice President Gore
casting the deciding vote. Unfor
tunately, in my opinion, this bill will
neither create jobs nor lower our na
tional debt.
Batten down the hatches: Co
president Hillary Rodham Clinton
has yet to unveil the massive nation
al health bill to be passed by
Congress.
We must eventually scrap the
4,(XX)-plus pages that make up the
U.S. lax Code, which is strangling
our economy at an ever-increasing
pace. The average American should
be able to till out his or her return on
a post card: this would mean some
sort of a flat tax that, among innu
merable benefits, would eliminate
double taxation on dividends and the
capital gains tax. This would seri
ously erode the power of politicians,
lawyers and tax accountants.
Bob L. Johnson
Ocean Isle Beach
Wr/fe Us
The Beacon welcomes letters
to the editor. All letters must be
signed and include the writer's
address and telephone number.
Under no circumstances will
unsigned letters be printed.
Letters should be legible. We
reserve the right to edit libelous
comments. Address letters to The
Brunswick Beacon , P. O. Box
2558, Shallotte. N. C. 28459.
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C1993 THE BRUNSWICK BEACON I
Welcome to Cardinal Care Center
"A Decision You Can Be Proud Of'
Cardinal Care Center
Mulberry Street, PO Box 1559, Shallotte, NC 28459
Local 754-6621 ? Toll Free 1-800-233-3204
Residents enjoy a wide variety of entertainment, exercise, spiritual and cultural events
planned by the staff as well as involvement with the community such as this sing-a-long
with the women from Jennies Branch.
Yes, we are different.
Through Comprehensive Home Health CareQiHC, we offer
nursing services to our residents with special needs. We
provide physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech
therapy as well as monitoring for convalescent stays.
Transportation to doctor appointments is provided.
We also offer special care for Respite (short-term) stays.
Please call for additional information.
Visit us soon. Let us share with you our concept of a caring
environment as an alternative to nursing homes.