Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, March 8, 1981
That's the way it is
One of the most unpopular jobs in the world has got to be that of the bearer of bad news. In ancient times, if the news the messenger brought was bad, the bearer often lost his head.
But there's one bearer of bad news, and good news, too, who brings America the news tonight for the last time. Walter Cronkite—CBS news anchorman, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and possibly the most recognized man in the country—and ends his 19-year reign on the evening news tonight. That's 19 years of bringing America the news "the way it is."
Cronkite's popularity can probably be traced to the element of trust. Quite simply, for most Americans, if Walter Cronkite says it's so, it's so. And in case you have any uncertainty about it, he ends each newscast by reaffirming the way it is.
Not many prominent public figures are trusted these days, but Walter Cronkite is. It's the sort of trust you have with your own family—in this case, the TV family—and you just know your Uncle Walter wouldn't lie to you.
When he began as CBS anchorman in 1962, television network news was in its infancy, a bare experiment. Then as now, he stood out above the other news people. These days, TV anchormen are slick, glossy plastic people turned out on assembly lines and trained to deliver the most superficial news possible, but that's not the way Walter Cronek did it.
Cronkite is different because his personality manages to come through. When covering moon shots, he was just like a little kid on Christmas morning; you'd almost be ready to believe that it was his exuberance, and not a Saturn 5 rocket, that made each mission successful. And his leveheadedness was like the Rock of Gibraltar amid the mayhem of a political convention. Chicago '68 was bedlam, but as long as Walter Cronkite was there reporting it, you knew things couldn't stay bad forever.
And no matter how famous he became, he was still basically a Missouri boy at heart. He may have brought American its news from New York or Cairo or Vietnam, but he was still one of us.
For almost two decades, he's presented the news for CBS without the sensationalism of ABC or the gray monotony of NBC. And unlike his cinematic counterpart Howard Beale, he didn't crack. He didn't a bause the power he held.
Somehow, America must now manage without his trusted presence at the TV helm. His successor, ace reporter Dan Rather, will probably do an admirable job, but of course it won't be a Cronkite job. Cronkite will still be around to do occasional documentaries, but it won't be the same. A 19-year chapter of American life closes tonight. Sad as it may be, that's the way it is.
Letters to the Editor
Green ribbons on campus symbolize Atlanta's tragedy
To the editor:
I know for most Americans there was a heavy sigh of relief when the hostages returned from Iran. We watched on TV as the nation prayed for them, cried for them, and in a fruitless rescue attempt, several Americans died for them. We also watched and saw symbolic yellow ribbons being worn and displayed in a dramatic gesture to say that we were concerned for the quick return and well beine of our fellow Americans.
Today we have a similar "crisis" that can show our concern and empathy for—the
people affected.
"America hosts hostage," the subtitle of the former late-night news program, could now be changed to "Atlanta held hostage while America looks on." Children in Atlanta are often by themselves, to go outside and play, and many of them are even afraid to go to school.
They are afraid of a killer (or group of killers) who has thus far left a grafty trail of 19 murdered black children. They have been shot, stabbed, asphyxied, strangled, beaten, gunned, and killed; they badly decomposed and mutilated that the cause of death was hard to determine.
The parents and children in Atlanta feel helpless as well as terrified. Black Mayor Maynard Jackson has established a $100,000 reward fund; the Georgia Bureau of Injury Prevention has provided hundreds of volunteers are patrolling the streets and neighborhood for missing youth.
We can also show support by wearing our ribbons again. This time we will wear green ribbons as a symbol to our brothers and sisters in Atlanta, whom America cares for, prays for and is just as concerned about as it was about the hostage crisis.
There is a feeling in Atlanta and all over American that blacks as well as whites have a general indifference to the civil rights gains made in the '60s. This feeling is perpetuated by the seeming lack of concern about these vicious murders. Is this true? Are we content with the way things are now? Don't we even know where we stand? Do we senselessly and brutally kill? Let's show we care—make a donation and let's te a green ribbon 'round that old oak tree.
Dereck J. Rovaris
Topeka Junior
Architectural atrocity
I feel that I cannot let pass without comment the recent publicity about the proposed museum project. Acceptance of this design is to simultaneously reject both contemporary architecture and
the best of our historical past in architecture.
In these instances in which we have control over the important decisions being made, we can choose the best building for our choice. The proposed building will not bring distinction to the University. Charles Kahn
To build a building such as this in the last quarter of the 20th century under the aegis of the University is to make a finite statement of a lack of concern about the aesthetic quality of our physical environment, which will not be lost on the students who have come here to study architecture as an art and as a profession.
To the editor:
Professor of architecture
One may certainly feel that the modern movement is dead and choose to substitute in its stead one of the more historical styles, or take a less radical approach from that seems to be so seductive in its attraction to students and professionals alike. It is inexcusable to accept a building that is neither good contemporary design nor a well-proportioned building of a gast period.
Subsidies hypocritical
To the editor:
In regard to the Kansan editorial of Feb. 27, 1981, concerning the self-sufficiency of the United States Postal Service and the proposed postal rate increases:
Perhaps the reason the proposed postal increases are so distasteful to many people is that postal rates have been held at an art rate for years, and it has not subsided. Just imagine what it would cost to have someone pick a letter up at your front door, sort it out from thousands of others, transport it across the country, re-sort it and then deliver it to your friend's house in another city or town. Or about 20 cents seems very reasonable for such a service, if not downright insensitive.
One must remember that each taxpayer must pay for government spending, either through taxes or deficit-spawned inflation. But on top of this, subsidizing the postal service actually would be unjust. There is no reason for a person who sends five letters a month to subsidize another person who sends 2,000 letters a month.
This is exactly what government subsidies do—benefit one at the expense of another. It actually would be forcing the first person to pay for the other's mail. It is only legalized theft. Surely the more equitable system would be for each to pay for what he uses.
In light of the unjustness of this (or any) government subsidy, it is highly hypocritical of the University Daily Kansan to condone it. The Kansan has always tried to further justice and human rights. Though it may be sweet in the short run for lower postage rates, clearly, government support of the United States Postal Service is floridly unjust.
Edwin Martin Cooley Wichita junior
Letters Policy
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is after publication, they should include the writer's class and home town or faculty or staff position. The Kansan reserves the right to edit letters for publication.
Such ethical decisions unfit for kids
Down through the history of public education in this country, public schools have been the battlegrounds of some of society's most fiery controversies. First it was the teaching of evolution. And then it was racial integration. And after that, voluntary waver.
The most recent controversy to hit public schools has been the one that now rages over the teaching of "values clarification." "Values clarification, or "situational ethics" as it is also called (another name is "secular humanism"), is a new approach to moral education by which students, guidance by their teachers, figure out for themselves what to do in difficult dilemmas that constantly confront them in life.
Concerned parents objecting to the approach have correctly argued, first, that high school is not the place to teach ethics as such, especially not a brand of ethics with which many may happen to disagree, and, second, that in any event high school students are too young and inexperienced to be able to sort out in any way their own complexities related to a given ethical question.
However, Laura Becker, principal of New York School, one of the three elementary schools
School administrators across the country have chosen a most novel way to meet these criticisms. They recently have expanded "values clarification" programs to include junior high and even grade school students. One such expansion has just occurred. OTIBES Lawrence, a teacher at McCarrick's Teaming for Responsibility, Identity and Belongingness in Education Systems.
These, of course, are just a few of the ethical issues that are constantly confronting the legal 10-year-old.
Needless to say, if local parents were concerned about the previous programs, they are up in arms over TRIBES. Housewives Barbara Hanna of Eudora and Janet Hoover of Perry have become so outraged that they assembled a 22-page critique of the program.
Under this program, which consists of more than 100 different "values clarification activities," the students, beginning in kindergarten, are asked, in front of their classmates, such questions as, "If you could smash one thing and only one thing, what would you smush?" Or, "For what do you think you would lay down your life?"
in Lawrence where the program is now being tested, is all goab about TRIBES.
"I think it's wonderful because kids are developing listening skills and mutual respect for each other, and they're stopping to think about it," she said. "They really act." She said in a recent newspaper interview.
Let's see. Kids are "developing listening skills." Could Principal Becker be saying that
ERIC
BRENDE
kids find it easier to pay attention to a teacher who asks, "If the atomic bomb were going to fall in 10 minutes, what would you do in that last 10 seconds?" The answer to one who asks them to do their arithmetic.
Furthermore, the particular brand of ethics being used in this case is not necessarily a valid one. Situational ethics teach that there are no absolutes, that what's right or wrong depends on the situation and the person's frame of mind at the time. For example, an athlete of grade 12 may or more likely, "feels," it is best, situational ethics is a dubious approach to morality.
But even if the children were mature enough to handle TRIBES, with its inducible hypothetical life-and death situations, ethics as such should not be taught in public school in the first place. For good reason, that subject has traditionally been reserved for the family and the church.
But then, kids are also "developing mutual respect for each other" and "stopping to think about their behavior before they act." Who could argue with those results? The answer is anyone who realizes that it is important "for kids to be kids."
At worst, it is an open invitation to amorality. At the two distracted Kansas women were particularly incensed over one character "Indie" of the novel *Murder by Numbers* named Karen Horney, who, as a doctor, "Will
Simply put, grade school kids are at an age at which they just have to be told what's right and
teach you to be an ideal sexual partner, to enjoy
bring pleasure and fulfillment to your life.
Any criticism of TRIBES altogether mystifies its creator, Jeanne Gibbs, La Fayette, Calif. The program, she has said, is "used as a model in 15 states, with about 25,000 teachers using the program nationally." The 22-page attack ever on two outraged Kansans was "the first attack ever on TRIBES." On the critique specifically, Gibbs said, "I think it's very dangerous. . . In their protests, they are trying to impose a minority opinion on a majority."
But who is imposing a "minority opinion" on whom? Gibbs fails compliance of TRIBES by the majority with lack of awareness of TRIBES in society. Why does this happen, knows that TRIBES was all about it, seems doubtful that they would give their wholehearted assent to it. In truth, Gibbs can only speak confidently for an elite band of secular humanists, who constitute a definite minority of the population. It is their "opinion" that she is now imposing on the real, but unsuspecting,
Gibbs is guilty not only of intellectual dishonesty but also of the very offense that she accuses others of committing. That's hardly model behavior for the person who designed the ethics program now being taught in thousands of university's public elementary and junior high schools.
Postmaster: Send changes to the university of Dialkana, Flint Hall, The University of Kannan,
(USPS $59.46) (44) Applicable at the University of
day August through May and Monday and Thursday
during June and July except Saturday, Sunday and
Monday. Mail resume to: USPS Office, 200 W.
6644S. Subscriptions by mail are for $15 for six months or
$2 per year in Douglas County and $18 for six months or $
3 per year in Richland County. A $2 semester,
passed through the student activity fee.
The University Daily KANSAN
Editor
David L. Lewis
Managing Editor ... Ellen Iwamoto
Business Manager
Retail Sales Manager...Larry Leibengood
Pot Shots
You see, my body's trying to kill me again. I think of my mind and my body as two separate, mutually hostile entities. Every semester at midterms, my mind tells my body, "You won't drink coffee or cigarettes and read text book gibberling until your eyes blur. And you'd better like it."
My body retaliates by slamming itself into
Midterms are here. It's time to self-destruct.
H
Grown-ups often can be found at the unit end of long, skincare cigarettes. They refuse to dance and are very shy.
They are boring and overbearing, and, fortunately, they are easily identified.
All grown-ups should be prohibited from attending parties.
Grown-ups come in all ages and In fact, I encountered my first at my party for my ninth
I'm not alone. When a friend walked out in front of a car, I mentioned rather loudly to her that she had nearly been turned into a pancake. "So?" she said.
It was, I think, the only appropriate response.
walls and trying to walk through doors without opening them first. This has its advantages. The day I got my body up before it wanted, to my foot althered angrily off the ladder to my bunk bed in the bathroom. I was walking when waking me up before my Vivarin for the first time in three years. I may make it a routine.
I can take a few bruises and permanent scars, but my body's beginning to get insistent about the battle. Lately it's been taking me out into the backyard, where I got a little bit of a rabbit in front of the oncoming headlights.
B
birthday.
At their own gatherings, grown-ups like their drinks dry, their wirt wry, and they make sure that all four food groups are represented on their refreshment tables.
"I think we are too old to eat cupcakes," she said. "Don't you?"
A surplus of grown-ups usually spells the end of any other party, so count them carefully. And watch out for the kind who turn into grown-ups only after they are safely inside.
In general, if the doorbell rings and a growup is standing on your porch, don't 'answer the door,
"The grown-up wouldn't contribute much to the
game," he said. "I probably wants to
drink up all your gin and tonic."
Saturday nights were fun. Used to be able to catch an early movie or some late dinner, maybe even do some studying before 10 p.m. Then there was time enough for 30 minutes of casual intoxication (nothing too intense) before the evening's main event. Sit back, feet up, tune in to NBC and prepare for laughter.
Ah, sweet laughter that is no longer; they have given their show away! That's right. "Saturday Night Live" is dead. Say it: "Saturday Night Live" is dead. Sit up straight, take a deep breath and face that somber little Sonny staring back 'C'mon, big college kids don't cry, Rosanne Rosannadanna could've told you that much.
Not that the "new generation" hasn't be-
given a chance. ("God, I'm sure! Excuse me for
living!) But (sigh) it just isn't, well, the same,
exactly, without Gilda and Dan Lorraine and
laugh. Didn't they all go, anyway?
Remember, used to see what the smiling Sony ...
yeah, that's when Saturday nights were, well,
fun.
@