lifestyles
A group of fraternity and sorority members is reaching out to people with mental disabilities.
By Susanna Lööf
Brian Davidson, Lawrence resident, with beard and hat, is surrounded by his friends in Natural Ties.
Matt Flickner / KANSAN
rian Davidson giggled when he remembered a canoe trip he and his friends took last year. "We had cows in the
Sharon Kekeha, Lawrence resident, also smiled at the memory.
morning," said Davidson, Lawrence resident. He was thinking about what happened when his tent was in the path of a herd of cows.
"I learned how to camp and how to paddle a canoe," she said.
Those who can go canoeing whenever they want probably would not get as excited as Davidson and Kekeah. But for the two, who have mental disabilities, the trip is something they never will forget.
Davidson and Kekeha are members of Natural Ties, a campus organization promoting friendships between college students and adults with mental disabilities.
To raise money for a new wilderness trip, Natural Ties is sponsoring a concert at 8 p.m. tonight in Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St. Slackjaw, the Eudoras and Sun Barrow will perform. Tickets cost $4 in advance at Liberty Hall and at the Student Union Activities box office or $5 at the door. The minimum age for admission is 18.
Natural Ties began in 1988 at KU when Patrick Hughes, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and a mentally disabled Lawrence resident, became friends. Their friendship grew into an organization that exists today at 11 college campuses in the United States. At KU, 15 fraternities and sororites are involved.
"Natural Ties started in the greek system, and it is a predominantly
Lisa Perry / KANSAN
Bob Cutler and his band, Slackjaw, as well as the Eudoras and Sun Barrow, will perform tonight at Liberty Hall in a concert sponsored by Natural Ties.
greek organization," said Sue Madler, Mount Prospect, Ill., senior. "But anyone can be in it. We are trying to exand outside of the greek system."
Every fraternity and sorority involved in the organization has its own "tie," which is what the disabled people in the organization are called.
"Iam the Sig Eps' tie," Davidson said proudly. Five years ago, when Davidson heard about the organization, he was not sure if he wanted to join.
"I was really hesitating at first," he said. "I had heard rumors that most houses only party and do not take studies seriously."
But Davidson decided to give Natural Ties a chance.
"I have been proven completely wrong." Davidson said, giving his friend John Fike, Dallas sophomore and Sig Ep member, a friendly hit on the shoulder.
Natural Ties meets every Wednesday. Sometimes meetings are on the agenda, but sometimes members participate in activities such as bowling or going to a restaurant
i r us a lot of fun, "Kekea said. "We can be pretty goofy sometimes."
When Kekeha became a tie, her life changed, she said. Before she joined the organization, she had a hard time making friends. Kekeha also was reluctant at first to participate.
"I was sitting in the background and did not want to join," she said. "Then I met Molly and the rest of the girls."
Molly Boyd, Iowa City, Iowa, senior,
is Kekea's representative. She does
not think of her involvement in Natural Ties as a responsibility even though it demands time.
"It is just like any other friendship you have," Boyd said. "You make time for it."
Fike said that getting involved in the organization was an eye-opening experience. Other students involved agreed.
"Natural Ties gives awareness that people are the same," said Sarah Boresow, Prairie Village senior. "Differences don't matter. Everybody can
be friends with everybody."
For the ties, the organization provides friendship and acceptance.
"The girls in my sorority understand me the way I really am," said Cathy Skrtic, Lawrence resident and Pi Beta Phi sorority's tie.
Kekeha said she felt accepted by the group's members.
Many people outside of Natural Ties do not respect her because of
her handicap, Kekeha said.
"A lot of people put us down because we cannot do everything they do," she said. "They think we don't belong in the world, but we do."
Anne Hayes, Mission Hills junior,
said that she wished organizations
like Natural Ties didn't have to exist
"The ultimate goal is that people won't have to join organizations like this to make friends with disabled people," Hayes said.
Lex Luthor returns — and he's bad to the bald
By Scott Williams AP Television Writer
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK — Watch out, Superman. Your archemesis Lex Luthor has risen from the dead. He's back he's bad and he's 'bald!
"It was my idea to make him bald," said John Shea, the actor who played the evil billionaire as a charming sociopath in an Armani suit.
Fans of ABC's "Lois and Clark" will recall last season's finale, when Superman thwarted Luthor's evil designs on Lois Lane. Rather than face imprisonment, Luthor leaped to his death from the penthouse suite.
End of story? Nah. We saw Luthor's remains encased in a cryogenic suspension chamber, a hedge against the day when scriptwriters might need him.
Luthor was street pizza. An acute case of asphalt poisoning.
"Last year it was Cary Grant and Richard III." Shea said. "This year, no more Cary Grant."
That day came sooner than expected. Warner Brothers, which had sold "Lois and Clark" internationally, found that viewers everywhere wanted to know what really had become of poor Lex.
Shea, however, was not entombed. He had amicably left the series after the finale and gone home to New York City to his wife, Laura, and son, Jake.
There, he went to work on two independent films he'll direct this year, "The Brass Ring," set in South Boston's mean streets, and Shea's own
screenplay of "The Junkie Priest."
"The writers really rose to the occasion," he said. "I came up with certain story elements, they came up with others, and we put this thing together."
"You don't do that for the money." Shea said. "Lex Hylor makes more money in one episode of 'Lois and Clark' than I'll make in six months working on the films."
"You can't kill off Luthor. At least, I couldn't," Shea admitted. "He's just too much a part of Superman's world."
When the producers gave him script approval, Shea happily came aboard.
When his phone rang with an offer to reprise Luther on "Lois and Clark," Shea was torn.
"He's stripped of his power, stripped of his money and stripped of his reputation as the golden boy, the philanthropist and politician. The public persona has been torn off." Shea said.
"This is the man who had it all, falls from grace and eight months later comes out of a coma and wakes up, like Lucifer, into a hell," he said.
"In addition to stripping him of all material things, I thought that it would be great symbolically to strip him of his hair."
The new Luthor in Sunday night's episode has come down in the world, Shea said.
Comics fans will note, too, that Shea's baldness also brings Luthor into registration with his namesake in DC Comics' tales of Superman.
Shea's character is a desperado who literally lives underground, in the sewers, he said.
"What is he to rely on? He has no money. All he is whatever he's got inside: How much heart he's got, how much wit — and his rage," Shea said.
"The worst thing about Superman is that he's a trust fund baby," Shea said almost contemptuously. "He's somebody who's inherited everything and earned... nothing!"
Shea's explanations grew more impassioned when he described Lutor's feelings about the big guy in the blue tights and red cape:
And, of course, all that rage is directed at Superman.
"Lex Luther is the true superman, in the Nietzsche mold: The man who, through will and imagination, has created an empire unparalleled on Earth—and lost it all because of a... trust fund baby!"
Instead of his Armeni suits and Cuban cigars, Luther is reduced to stealing clothes off dead men. He wears black jeans, a T-shirt, an Army surplus jacket, a baseball cap — and he's bald.
"Here's what I discovered about being bad: It is an amazing aphrodiasi, "Shea said. "You become a predator. You become slightly repilian, snakelike, dangerous and therefore, sexy."
"The man who shaves his head is sending out a signal that he's gone extreme at some level," he said, grinning. "And sexually, that's an exciting concept for women — I'm told."
"I didn't do it for that reason, but it has that side effect."
LEAD STORY
In December, a jury in Ellsworth, Wis., deliberated for three hours before ruling against Stewart Blair in his lawsuit against his friend Maurice Poulin for injuries incurred when Blair tripped over a snowplow blade. Blair claimed that Poulin caused the fall when he startled Blair by accidentally passing gas in his face. And in a postscript to the trial, as the jurors ceremonially exited the courtroom, the foreman accidentally audibly passed gas as he walked by the judge.
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT
The People's Insurance Company of China recently began offering a marriage insurance policy, in which a couple that divorces forfeits all human rights but
a couple that stays together 25,40 or 50 years stands to gain substantial dividends.
In December, Dr. Henry Abrams of Loveladies, N.J., who was Albert Einstein's ophthalmologist and who removed Einstein's eyes during his autopsy in 1955 (storing them in a safe-deposit box ever since), announced that the eyes were for sale and he expected he could get $5 million.
OVERREACTIONS
Recent sensitive People: Brenda L. Hunter, 31, Zion, III., allegedly shot her brother because she did not like the kind of cheese he was putting on their chili dinner; Michael R. Waggoner, 37, Knoxville, Tenn., allegedly shot a man five times in a bar because he thought the man had asked "Have you got a light, baby?" The man actually ended the question with "buddy," Anthony Foti, 35, missasuga, Ontario, was charged with punching and kicking an elementary school principal because one of his teachers was wearing a skirt that was too short.
In August in Oklahoma City a Hardee's restaurant worker, angered that a drive-through customer continued to complain about the delay in his order, stripped off his headset, ran to his car, grabbed his gun out of the trunk, and threatened the customer before fleeing.
In September, Christian-oriented radio station WKID in Veyin, Ind., was burglarized and set on fire, probably by the man who became angry earlier in the day when a DJ refused to play his request. (Editor's Note: The song was "Don't Take the Girl" by Tim McGraw. DJs seeking to avoid trouble are advised to honor all requests to play that song.)