OPINION
University Daily Kansan, February 4, 1985
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kansas (USPK 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Staffer Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 6004, daily during the regular school year and Wednesday and Friday during the summer session, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods. Second-class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan. 6004. Subscripctions by mail are $15 for six months or more. Third-class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan. 6004. Subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee. POSTMASTER. Send address changes to the University Daily Kansas, 118 Staffer Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 6004.
MATT DEGALAN Editor
DIANE LUBER SUSAN WORTMAN Managing Editor Editorial Editor
ROB KARWATH Campus Editor
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Dutch Lonborg
If collegiate athletics have changed over the past 25 years, Arthur C. "Dutch" Lonborg is the expression of what was left behind when winning became important for profit instead of just for fun.
Last Thursday, he died at age 86 after an extended illness.
Last Thursday, he died at age 86 after an extended illness. Lonborg, who served as athletic director from 1950-1964, left behind an impressive legacy. KU teams won four national championships and 38 conference titles during his tenure. Allen Field House and Quigley Field were constructed, and Memorial Stadium was renovated.
While head basketball coach at Northwestern University, he was instrumental in founding the first NCAA basketball tournament in 1939. He also served as manager of the gold medal-winning 1960 U.S. Olympic basketball team and has been named to several halls of fame, including the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
Friends and colleagues remember him as a quiet, warm man with a great sense of humor and a penchant for working behind the scenes and letting others take the credit. He prided himself in never having to fire a coach.
A former colleague said it best, "All Dutch does is win national championships, hire good people, have a good time and make money."
In recent years, colleagues say, Lonborg became concerned that collegiate athletics weren't as much fun as they had been in his era and that winning had become too important. His fears were well-grounded.
Times have changed and with them certain priorities. Still, Lonberg's life can serve as a reminder that a man doesn't have to sacrifice honesty, integrity and compassion to achieve success. In an age when collegiate athletes are often set against the dark backdrop of NCAA probations and academic ineligibility, Lonberger is testament to an idea worth remembering: You can play by the rules and still win.
Local primary
To most KU students, the names don't mean a whole lot. But there are 11 people whose names will appear on the ballot February 26 for the primary election of the Lawrence City Commission.
Before then, students should pay attention when they see the names of Mike Amyx, Steve Cochran, James L. Hertsch, Howard Hill, Mona McCoy, Sandra (Sandy) K. Praeger, J.R. Bob) Pulliam, George D. Schmitendorfer Jr., Nancy K. Shontz, Terry L. Summers and Timothy Williams.
Somewhere between now and the election, these people will give signals as to how they think things in Lawrence should run and which issues deserve the city commission's attention.
The candidates will be talking about all kinds of subjects, and voters need to file away mental notes about which candidates are the most qualified to serve.
Granted, the Lawrence City Commission generally doesn't vote on things that directly affect the University.
Homophobia A new social disease
Some issues decided by the commission may seem inconsequential, but overall, the city commission has a lot to do with how Lawrence runs.
Yet any student who steps beyond the confines of Mt. Oread, and even those who rarely venture off campus, are occasionally affected by the decisions made by the city commission.
And just in case someone wants to excuse themselves by saying that they're not registered to vote here — there's still time. The last day to register for the primary election is tomorrow.
Students who spend nine months of the year here and three months elsewhere should realize that Lawrence, and not Olathe, Albuquerque or Omaha, deserves a considerable amount of their attention.
Members of the commission decide such issues as zoning for building permits, cleaning of city streets and the most efficient method of collecting trash.
"Homophobic" is the newest-campus catchword of those to whom I will refer, for the sake of this book. The word "lectuals," forgive the oxymoron.
William Tuttle, professor of history, has recently found this word useful in advising students to allocate Student Senate funds.
But what does the word homophobic mean?
We must thank Sandra Zimdrids-Swartz, assistant professor of religious studies, for furnishing us with a concise description of the homophobic individual. She has explained that people who find homosexuality disturbing should acknowledge whatsoever, are paranoid because of their own latent homosexual tendencies.
This sort of pawky non-logic, resplendent in all its Freudian arrogance, could be used to malign the character of anyone who objected to anything. If you feel an aversion to corpses, it can only be attributed to a lurking necrophilia. If you recoil from the idea of cannibalism, you must be entertaining fantasies of roasting your neighbor on the spit. But never mind such vexatious nick-picking.
If Zindarms-Swartz explicates the homophobic personality, Tuttle tells us how to spot one. It's really quite simple: A homophobic is anyone who objects to Student Senate financing of Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas. Tuttle's First Law of Homophobia is as elegantly simple and self-evident as the theory of a flat earth: "The petition to end GLOSK funding is motivated by homophobic attitudes . . . To end hostilities is to end the relation."
ity that defames more than 2,000 students.
Like all librals, Tuttle shows a marked proclivity for spending other people's money without their consent. Out of thin air the liberal mentality manufactures all sorts of books that are protected by the protection of which requires that we reach for our checkbooks. However, freedom of association
It goes without saying that Tuttle's Law must be considered axiomatic. Why? Because not to do so would be to accuse Tuttle of having uttered a fatuous general-
TIM WILLIAMS
Guest Columist
rarely survives a maelstrom of liberal "tolerance."
According to Tuttle, to refuse to subsidize the activities of GLSOK is to threaten "minority rights," to "harass" homosexuals. I contend that there is no bigot as intolerant as the crusading liberal who will shriek "discrimination!" at who-soever questions his premises.
It is unfortunate that Steve Imber, a Lawrence senior who wrote the petition, was involved in both the financing petition and the distasteful and sophomoric "Fagbusters" business. Proponents of GLSOK are quick to make a single issue of the two. This is grossly unfair to the signatories of the petition, and dare I say it "disgusts" them against them. And it is a spurious effort to obstruct the real question, which is: Does GLSOK have an inherent and absolute right to Student Senate funds regardless of student opinions?
Certainly, homosexuals compose a percentage of the student population, but so are impatiens. The readers of Mad Magazine, are we readers of Mad Magazine. Are we
never to question the communal relevance of a student organization when it requests, or demands, community funding? If a group of students were to propose financing a "Friends of Alfred E. Neuman" club, should we even listen?
It has been argued in defense of GLSOK financing that the organization would cease to exist if forced to rely on the largess of members and sympathizers. As Thom Davidson, former chairman of the Student Senate Elections Committee, said, "GLSOK has a right to exist. Financing ensures that right . . ."
This is classic liberalism: The more unpopular an organization, the less likely it can survive without public funds, therefore the greater its "right" to exist! The absurdity of such a defense is dizzying. One could propose a universe of organizations that would easily meet this same criterion of relative "friendlessness," such as a counseling service for homophobics.
It is particularly annoying that a faculty member is hell-bent on pre-emptying student pervasive in deciding how Student Senate funds are to be spent, since no portion of them consists of faculty contributions.
I will close with this request of those professors and administrators, namely Tuttle, Robert H. Jerry, Arthur Farmer and others like them who seem to equate pecuniary self-interest with harassment of minorities: If you feel so strongly about the legitimacy of our work, please assist at that among yourselves, and leave the rest of us unsophisticated folks with our quaint notions of morality and our money.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tim Williams is a graduate student in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Traffic heavy because drugs are profitable
There was an interesting story in the paper the other day that helps shed some light on why the United States is so unsuccessful in getting countries like Bolivia and Colombia to reduce their cope production.
According to the story, an 18-year-old man in Connecticut who was awarded $300,000 in a malpractice suit filed against it on cocaine in a matter of months.
The young man received the money in March 1984. At the age of six, he lost 70 percent of the money of his doctors tried to repair a broken bone.
According to the prosecutor, the man would buy one or two ounces of cocaine a day, then he and his friends
The money was held in a trust until the man reached 18. And when he finally received the money, he went wild.
DOUG FARAH
Staff Columnist
would get high. He used an additional $120,000 on "high living." When the police finally caught up with him in November, and only $30,000 left of his money, he settled.
Now let's go to the coca fields of Bolivia. The coca leaf, which is used to make cocaine, has been grown there for thousands of years. When chewed with lime it apparently slows down the body's metabolism. The effect is that one doesn't feel the cold or hunger as much.
cocaine rises, so does the prices for the people's coca crop. And coca is a fairly easy crop to grow. It requires relatively little care, is easily stored and yields two or three crops a year.
Suddenly, people who had seldom had enough to eat and had been excluded from the cash economy found that they had a marketable commodity. So they sell their cocu and live relatively comfortable lives.
The United States and other consuming nations have asked Bolivia and other countries to eradicate the spread of finance crop substitution projects.
But the campesinos know nothing else will bring in the kind of money cocao does. And they sort of like money, more than clothes themselves and selves their children.
Consumer nations are attacking the problem from the wrong end. As long as there are people like the young man in Connecticut, there will be suppliers willing to meet the demand.
This is not an attempt to justify the drug trade. Cocaine kings, with their private fortunes and hired guns, do tremendous damage in the producing countries. The drug trade fuels corruption, brings havoc on the economy and makes it difficult for decent people to live.
But the United States will never succeed in its efforts to control the drug traffic until it brings consumption in this country under control.
How do you explain to someone that they should not grow their crops because someone else several thou sand miles away is foolish enough to turn it into a white powder and stick it up his nose?
The other problem is that when punishment is meted out, those who control the operations and make the big bucks are never touched.
It is easy to grab a few small growers. But those who control the operations, thanks to people like the man in Connecticut, have enough money to hire private armies and buy off law enforcement officials.
These people's power and influence exists not because campesinos are willing to sell them coca leaves but because people are willing to shell out the money for the finished product.
When demand withers, supply will follow. Until then, look for the cocaine blizzard from South America to continue.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
As a member of the University Symphony Orchestra, I took particular interest in the Kansan's article about the need to replace Hoch Auditorium with a more modern facility
To the editor:
This is a problem that I have known about since moving up here last August, and something that I witnessed firsthand when the orchestra and choirs prepared for the Brahmus Requiem. I spent more time learning how to circumvent the hall than rehearsing the music.
What makes your article unique is that finally the mechanics of replacing the building are being addressed Generally speaking, before your article appeared, the bulk of the talk about Hoch dealt with the
problems that exist rather than how to solve them.
With this new attitude, maybe progress can be made toward building a new performing arts center rather than morely talking about a need for one, which is what I felt was taking place.
It is good to know that, in fact, the University is now working toward realizing this goal rather than sitting on a desk, and waiting for a financial windfall.
Problem solved
To the editor:
I am so glad that Julia Brown (Letters to the Editor, Jan. 30 issue of the University Daily Kansan) finally stepped forward. The leadership of the Student Senate has been as discouraged as Brown at the recent
play of our 'Hawks. Our problem has been that we have not been able to find anyone on the campus who has a better knowledge of basketball, either college or pro, than Coach Larry Brown.
Now, however, the problem may be solved. We have finally found the one individual who can reverse the tide in this dismal season (at the time of this writing 16-4). Maybe now the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation will realize that Coach Brown knows little, if anything, about coaching basketball. The simple fact that he has never coached a team, college or pro, to a losing season is clear to even those students who know nothing about sports that the man is a phony. Additionally, the simple fact that all of the college teams Coach Brown has ever coached have always played in the NCAA tournament, with a combined
record in the tournament of 6-3 should bring the point home.
Julia, where ever you might be,
please step forward and take your
rightful place as KU's head basket
ball coach.
Jeff Polack
Topeka junior
student body vice president To the editor:
To the editor
I would like to comment on the letter by Julia Brown in the Jan. 30 issue of the University Daily Kansean. Where does she get off critiquing the ability of Coach Larry Brown and the KU basketball team? Has she ever coached a college or professional ball club?
Is she the coach who has never had a losing season and who took an unranked team to the NCAA fast ball tournament, winning the Big Eight tournament?
her last name is the only thing she
It really makes me mad when the Jayhaws lose a couple of games and all these amateur coaches appear out of nowhere, viciously coaching the team and getting their worthless ideas in the paper.
Yes, of course, KU has potential enough to win the Big Eight championship, but not without the coaches. Yes, it's true that KU is not playing team ball as of now, but that magic takes time to develop.
As for her comment about Brown switching players all the time, she should leave the coaching to him and the other coaches, Ed Manning and Bob Hill, for they must have their reasons no one can argue with.
has in common with the head coach, and neither she nor anyone else for that matter, has the right to pass judgment on the KU ball club.
Take, for example, Julia Brown's idea that the talents of only five
players can set the tempos of games and score the points necessary to win. She forgot to mention more than half the team: Cedric Hunter, Milt Newton, Mark Pellock, Altonio Campbell, Rodney Hull, Chris Piper, Jim Pelton and, yes, even Tad Boyle. What about those guys?
That's what team ball is all about. It means caring enough about something when the chips are down and not in your favor.
It does not mean, however, turning your back when a loss occurs. This, it seems, is what the skeptics and the Kansai basketball team and fans
Mieah B. Goldstein Prairie Village senior