Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Ann Premer, Editor Jamie Holman, Business manager Gerry Derry, Managing editor Sara Cropper, Retail sales manager Angie Kuhn, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news advisor Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Wednesday, February 10, 1999
Seth Jones / KANSAN
Editorial
Delicate political situation begs for smooth transition of power
An influential voice in international politics, King Hussein of Jordan evolved during his 46-year reign from a mere military figurehead to a peace-making diplomat.
And now that voice has been silenced, Hussein's long struggle with cancer ended Sunday after months of chemotherapy and a last resort bone-marrow transplant failed to save him. He was 63.
After inheriting Jordan's throne at age 17, Hussein seemed to lack a bright future. Other Arab heads of state lacked any confidence in his ability to rule — as did some of Jordan's citizens. In the first decade of Hussein's rule, he had to fend off two coup attempts.
Though Hussein had been in the United States' good graces in recent years, he was a foe at first. Bowing to anti-Iraeli
King Hussein leaves legacy of peacemaking for successor, Jordanians, Middle East.
sentiments within his own country, Hussein supported Egypt in that country's Six-Day War with Israel in 1967. Israel, traditionally an American ally since Israel's formation in 1948, defeated the Jordan-backed Egyptian forces.
A proven survivor, Hussein continued to serve as an activist for Arab interests, while earning the respect and friendship of several Western leaders. Although Hussein was excluded from many of the Middle East peace negotiations that began in the '70s, he evolved into a figure trusted by both Arab, European and American leaders. Most
recently, Hussein participated in last year's Wye River peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Unfortunately, Hussein did not live long enough to see the harmonious coexistence for which he had worked. Though much progress has been made, Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and fundamentalist Islamic extremists in Iran threaten to throw the region back into chaos. It is in the West's interests to see that the transition of power in Jordan is carried out smoothly.
King Hussein's long tenure as ruler of such a pivotal nation in the volatile Middle East, rocky as it was, eventually contributed to an atmosphere of peacemaking. It is imperative that Hussein's son and successor, King Abdullah, continue to follow the road his father paved.
Chris Borniger for the editorial board
Feedback
Diversity issue provides reason for rejoicing
re another editorial and another meeting about whether KU students should be required to take a diversity course. It boggles the mind that we do not see the forest for the trees. Our country is changing. It is our obligation toward our students to prepare them for the next century.
Ninety percent of all managers have grown up in an environment that is similar to them. The same probably goes for University faculty and most of our students. Most of us know little about people from other racial, ethnic, religious, etc. backgrounds. How are we to learn to benefit from one another's expertise, experiences and novel ideas when we have no idea about what these are?
Last week, we could have watched "I'll Make Me a World" on public television — a series about the history of African American art in this country. The talents that were shown were inspirational. People from other backgrounds have similarly enriching histories that we should know about. And we squabble if our students should be required to learn about a few of them?
This is not about doing minorities the favor of including their studies into the curriculum.
This is about our own enriched educations. It's about having the benefits of learning about others' thoughts and ideas. Only then can we integrate all of these to the betterment of the nation.
self."
Finally, this is not a Lawrence, or Midwest or national issue. This is a global issue because many other countries also are struggling with learning about their own diversities. Potentially, we as a country could have the advantage because our population has consisted of more diversity than most other countries. Let our students benefit from this lucky circumstance.
As James Baldwin expressed it in the '50s: "This is not a matter of saving the natives. This is a matter of saving one-
The issue here is to rejoice in the diversity of humankind, to learn to love and respect one another and to understand that learning about differences can be a joyful experience. Now — not many more editorials and discussions and definitions later.
Renate R. Mai-Dalton professor of business
Kansan staff
Ryan Koerner ... Editorial
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane." —Kurt Vonnegut
How to submit letters and guest columns
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Perspective
The Y2K bug. Campus-wide safety Making Wescool offices and departments more cost-efficient. Underage drinking in the community. Transportation in 2000
Modern task forces lack urgency, workable ideas
What do these have in common? These are all problems or issues that have task forces called to address them.
This recent spate of task forces on campus and nationwide has left me wondering how long the term has been in circulation. And how did society function in pre-task force days?
Duane
Wagler
opinion@tansan.com
According to the Random House dictionary.
the term originated in the Navy during the 1940s and is defined as "a group or committee, usually of experts or specialists, formed for analyzing, investigating or solving a specific problem."
The practical side of me likes the idea of a task force. See a problem, gather the gurus, have a free exchange of ideas and come up with a creative solution. Democracy in action.
Then again, I suspect many task forces today are a vehicle for bureaucracy to wade into terrain in which it has no business.
Tony Blair's early days as British prime minister provide an example. According to an August 1997 New Statesman article by Caroline Daniel, Blair's government set up more than 50 task forces, advisory groups and reviews in the first 100 days after the 1996 election. Even hedgerows and soccer did not escape the all-encompassing task-net.
Daniel suggests that the reason behind the flurry of Blair's task forces was to give the people a sense that the government placed a premium on governing. After years of a more detached government under prime
ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, citizens welcomed a government that promised immediate action.
What's missing from Blair's task forces is a sense of urgency and vision. Is the problem worth addressing, and is a solution achievable?
Perhaps we can take a few lessons from one of the more effective task forces in U.S. history. The Constitutional Convention, called during the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, brought together 55 delegates to hammer out a document to unite a fledgling country. This task force designated a leader immediately, encouraged input from those assembled and had the impetus to see that a document emerged after four months of discussion.
Not everyone at the convention liked the idea of a national government. But enough of the delegates realized that the old system needed revamping, and a creative solution arose from the convention. The sense of urgency to keep the nation intact, along with a vision of what this nation could become, kept this task force from losing its focus.
Task forces such as the Constitutional Convention move beyond simply analyzing and investigating problems to offering solutions. Although examining problems can add much-needed context, leaders of task forces provide an important function by coaxing out workable solutions. All the technical explanations of the Y2K bug and its effects mean little, for example, without leaders offering a reasonable solution in the end.
Let's use the 212-year-old template for task forces rather than Britain's recent example. We might not be able to draft a first-class Constitution, but we can do better than discussing soccer.
Wagler is a Portridge graduate student in journalism.
Campus canines pique animal waste concerns
or unusual size,otherwise will be scrapping and crapping around campus.
Soon a myriad of wonderfully halftrained, quasi-rabid and foul-or emanating domesticated ROUSes — rodents of unusual size, otherwise known as dogs — will be encountered.
Mike
WARNING: Soon it will be a time for the fleet of foot, the agile side-stepper, the wide-eyed dung spoter. Be aware at all times. Point out and flag all obtrusive, brown, steaming heaps of dog disregard that lie strewn across campus.
Mike Perryman
"What's that smell? Who stepped in the. . .?"
Perryman
opinion@kansan.com
"Doesn't anyone clean this stuff up?"
this stuff up?" "Dammit man the fris.
bee. The frisbee just fell in a big pile of..." "GIT! Got out here!"
Dogs carry with them fun, playfulness and distraction. Offering simplicities such as innocence, trust and loyalty, they captivate us humans and demand nothing in return but a silly little thing called affection.
Unfortunately, there is another side of dogs that we must be cautious of. A dark and undeniably distasteful side. Dogs crap whenever they please, wherever they please. Whether it be right in the middle of a sidewalk, halfway up a flight of stairs, on a passerby's foot, on a tree, on a car, on a bike, on a teacher, dogs exercise little discretion when relieving themselves.
"Oh, my backpack, I just set it in a pile of. Can you believe this?"
These are the typical expressions, or rather signs, that dogs are back on campus. For the most part, despite these disgusted responses, their arrival on campus actually is an exciting time.
As we all know, this is merely an inevitable facet of nature. And because of this, we must not go so far as to label dogs' lack of better judgment as a deliberate, evil thing. Truly, it is not the animals' fault.
However, I will tell you this. I've seen too many good men and women, domesticated dog lovers alike, lunge forward, unsuspectingly, into the brown abyss and come out cursing and denouncing their admiration toward the panting varmints. This is a sad thing. Like I said earlier, dogs are playful and innocent. Ideally, they should be loved, not loathed.
It took me some time to come to this conclusion. I used to be a certified dog despisher. But I have concluded that dogs are faultless, in almost every respect—including the random soiling of campus.
Dogs were not responsible for certain traumatic encounters during my youth, encounters that initially fed my disaffection toward them. It was the humans who domesticated them. It was the humans who made these encounters less-than-memorable. Humans encouraged the dogs to chase me, bite me or just plain scare me as I walked down the sidewalk, jumped a fence or traversed a neighbor's backyard.
For example, I was walking to a friend's house one day — I was little, impressionable, scared of just about everything and everyone, including my own dogs at home — when I walked by an old guy and his dog. I remember the sinister grin on the old man's face, although at the time I did not quite understand it.
"That's easy for you to say, Perryman, you didn't see your best friend lose a foot on his way to Biology 901 — The Study of Animal Feces. It was Lawrence, '95. I was there. I saw the look on his face when he turned around and lifted his foot to confirm what we already knew. The brown shrapnel from the mine splattered and smeared across his foot. Then I looked down. I, too, had stepped on a mine. I cried and swore that I would never forgive another dog for the events that unfolded that day."
As for the dog, well, it seemed more to be smiling, you know, playfully. I walked on and all of the sudden the old man unclasped the leash from the animal's collar. What was that? The dog chased after me. When he finally caught up to me he rammed his nose into my groin and tossed me aside a rag doll named Susie. I laid there humiliated and terrified, but that old guy never said a word to retrieve his dog.
For those of you who are jaded, such as this poor, imaginary unfortunate, I have only one thing to say:
I know what some of you are thinking:
Thus, I am warning all of you ahead of time to be on the look out for the inevitable. The dogs are going to be here soon and they are going to place their landmines. It is up to us navigate through the field, safely, cleanly, so that when we come to the top of the stairs outside of Wescoe Hall or Watson Library, or wherever, we can be happy. We can love and pet a dog, rather than agitatedly question his or her existence.
Unfortunately, just as we must accept that dogs often perform their duties directly in our paths, we also must accept that all owners will not find some out-of-the-way, fecal paradise where they can take their animals.
Back then, I was upset because I thought the dog was going to eat me. I was upset that I couldn't go to my friend's house because I had to go home and change my shorts. But now, I understand that it was the old man's fault. It was the human who refused to restrain the dog. Just as it is the human who refuses to insist that his or her dogs relieve themselves at some discreet location.
I have no pity to offer. Frankly, I don't care where the dogs lay their goods. If I step in a pile, so be it. However, if I see you step in a pile, I'm probably going to laugh uncontrollably. Why? You may ask. No. 1—because it's funny. No. 2—because you were warned.
.
Perryman is a Prairie Village senior in journalism.