Wednesday, June 16, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Section A • Page 9
Dividing donations difficult
The Associated Press
LITTLETON, Colo. — Spiraling medical bills. Mental health services. Assistance for rent and living expenses.
Divyving up the nearly $5 million in donations to meet the needs of the survivors of the Columbine school massacre and victims' families is proving a Herculean task.
"You have a large number of victims. They all express different thoughts on how they think the money should be utilized and distributed," said Robin Finegan of the Colorado Organization for Victims' Assistance.
"It is in many ways a no-win situation," Ms. Finegan said.
Some believe more money should be given to teen-age survivors with mounting medical bills; others advocate equal distribution to survivors and the families of the dead. Some have proposed that all of the students who weren't wounded get a share, too.
Organizers hope questionnaires handed out to victims' families will help provide answers as to how to dole out the donations. Some families say they cannot afford to wait.
"Monetary support should not be held hostage when there are real life, urgent needs that some of these families face," said Ram Siddhre, a representative for the family of slain 18-year-old Isaiah Shoels.
Student gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebeld killed 12 classmates and a teacher and injured 23 before they committed suicide in the April 20 attack.
In all, there are more than 30 funds devoted to medical bills, victims' memorials, scholarships and community counseling. The school district is also receiving donations.
Donations raised after the school shooting at Jonesboro, Ark., totaled about $400,000, while about $450,000 was raised after the Springfield, Ore., attack. Some warn that with the increase in contributions after the Columbine attack comes the possibility of abuse.
"We try to be vigilant, but there's always going to be an individual who, for whatever reason, takes advantage of a situation like this," said Kelly Cahill, a representative for the Mile High United Way, which has collected nearly $3.3 million in its Healing Fund for Columbine.
including $5,000 to the families of each person killed or injured. $150,000 to support a mental health center and $50,000 to the Colorado victims' group.
So far, $390,000 has been dispensed,
But medical bills for victims continue to mount, and some students will probably have to undergo years of surgery and physical and mental therapy. Those without medical insurance are causing the biggest drain.
Medical bills for Lance Kirklin, a 16-year-old whose jaw was shattered by gunfire, have already topped $1 million. He was not insured.
Brian Rohrbrough, whose 15-year-old son Daniel was killed, said he wants more accountability from United Way officials on exactly where the money is going.
"I don't think anyone should give a dollar to an organization that doesn't lay out how it's going to be spent," said Rohrbough, who was upset by a proposal to give $1,000 to more than 2,000 uninjured students.
"You know, $5 million may sound like a lot, but when you start dooling out $1,000 checks it goes pretty quickly," Rohrbough said.
Congress honors Rosa Parks with medal
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Hailed by lawmakers as the mother of civil rights, Rosa Parks was honored yesterday with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by Congress.
House and Senate leadership and President Clinton lauded Parks, 86, for an act of defiance more than four decades ago.
On Dec. 1, 1955, the seamstress, tired after a day's work in Montgomery, Ala., refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated city bus and was arrested for her defiance.
Parks' arrest set off a lengthy bus boycott by thousands of African Americans led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., then a local minister. The boycott lasted about a year until the Supreme Court declared Montgomery's bus segregation law unconstitutional.
"She is the mother of the civil rights movement," said Rep. Julia Carson, D-Ind., who pushed for the legislation granting the Congressional Gold Medal to Parks.
"It is a celebration of the life of Rosa Parks, who is receiving the honor while she can still see it," Carson said of Parks, who appeared frail and had to be helped to her feet from her wheelchair, sometimes steadily herself on the arm of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-III.
"I thank God that when your time came, you were not afraid," House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said at the Capitol Rotunda ceremony. "You had courage, and you sat down for all of America and all of America's freedom."
"I thank you," Parks said in a low, halting voice, adding that she accepted the award for a free people and for civil rights. The gratitude yeet both ways.
"I thank you for what you have done," Clinton told Parks.
"She sat anchored to that seat, as Dr. King said, by the accumulated indignities of days gone by and the countless aspirations of generations yet unborn," the press
ident said. "Rosa Parks said, 'I didn't get on that bus to get arrested; I got on that bus to go home.'"
Parks' action cost her the seamstress job and prompted harassment and threats to her family. So she moved to Detroit in 1957. She joined the staff of Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., in 1965 and worked there until retiring in 1988.
Parks has received numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The legislation awarding her the Congressional Gold Medal was approved by the Senate without dissent April 19. The House voted 424-1 for it the next day. The only opposing vote was cast by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who said he opposes spending government money on such awards.
Lawmakers initially used the Congressional Gold Medal to honor military leaders but began using it during the 20th century to recognize excellence in a range of fields. More than 320 medals have been awarded.
NATO orders Serbs to withdraw troops police from Kosovo
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Yugoslavia is on schedule to withdraw all its troops and police from a designated zone in southern Kosovo by midnight, the Clinton administration said today. So far, 20,000 troops have left the province and 15,000 allied troops have entered as peacekeepers.
Of the retreating Serbs, 12,000 left the designated zone along with 115 artillery pieces, 65 armored personnel carriers and 37 tanks.
NATO had threatened to resume its bombing of Yugoslavia if the Serbs deliberately dragged their feet in leaving Kosovo.
"The roads are jammed, so they're having a hard time getting them out. But we basically see a strong effort to try to comply." Kenneth Bacon, Pentagon spokesman, said.
Bacon showed reporters video tape from a U.S. surveillance drone that showed an estimated 300 to 500 military and civilian vehicles forming a convoy headed north from south-central Kosovo on Monday. The convoy was being monitored by U.S. Army Apache attack helicopters.
As the Serbs pulled out, NATO troops continued to pour in. They include 1,000 U.S. Army soldiers and 900 U.S. Marines, the vanguard of a U.S. force eventually to total 7,000.
It will be up to the commander of NATO's peacekeepers in Kosovo, British Lt. Gen. Sir Mike Jackson, to determine whether the Serbs have lived up to the agreement they signed June 9 that laid down deadlines for pulling out of Kosovo. It gave the Serbs until today to vacate a stretch of southern Kosovo; they are to be completely out of a middle section of the province by Friday and out of Kosovo altogether by Sunday.
The military agreement signed with NATO required the Serbs to have 100 percent of their air defense weapons out of Kosovo and beyond a 16-mile buffer zone in Serbia by last Saturday. Bacon said all of these weapons had been withdrawn except for an unspecified number of anti-aircraft artillery guns, which they were working to move as soon as possible. He said some of these are broken down.
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