4 University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, April 29, 1992 OPINION Brian Meilahn's spirit lives on in JRP's walls The destiny of Joseph R. Pearson Hall is still uncertain. Perhaps it will be leased to Haskell Indian Junior College. Maybe it will become an office building. I hope it will keep on housing KU students because whatever happens to those walls on 1122 West Campus Road, I will always read in them the life of a KU student: Brian Meilah, a former fifth-year architecture senior. Those walls saw Brian live and serve; they saw him agonize and die April24,1991. Today, more than a year after Brian's death, I dedicate this column to this radiant student, who will always be a role model for those of us who knew him. Ndomby Fhunsu Guest columnist A few days after Brian's death, I wrote a column about him. Commenting on the article in a letter to me, his parents wrote: "Brian was a quiet person. He just loved college and couldn't get enough learning. We asked him one time to slow down; he didn't need so many credits. He stood and told us that he was in college to learn as much as he could!" Among Brian's things that were found were these lines of a poem by Jack London that were handwritten by Brian himself. "...I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in a magnificent glow than a sleepy and permanent planet. Man's chief purpose is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them I shall use my time." I lived with Brian at JRP last year. I live off-campus now. To prepare this column, I went back to JRP and sat down with hall officials David Platt, Tom Stalinaker and Chris Spurgin. I asked them about their impressions of Brian, and what I heard coincide strangely with my own experience and the information I received from his parents. Brian was quiet and sure of himself. He knew how to expose his own short-comings and laugh about them. He was a role model. He enjoyed what he did, and people could feel it. At JRP, Brian had been an RA for two years prior to his death and advised the executive board of the hall government. An innovative and courageous thinker, he was not afraid to question any decision that he thought did not make sense. He genuinely cared about and was fully committed to those he He also was in charge of the computer room and trained many to use a Macintosh. I was one of those souls who learned from him. One night I was finishing a project at 4 a.m. when something went wrong with the computer. The security monitor woke Brian up; Brian came, solved the problem and went back to sleep. I did not hear a single word of complaining. served. He really impressed me that night. I own a Macintosh now, and whenever I use it, I cannot help thinking about Brian. Meilah was a rocket, and as a rocket, against all odds, he designed and set in place a volleyball court that still stands at JRP. A few hours before Brian died on that April afternoon, he played volleyball with the people he had loved, served and inspired, and the walls of JRP watched and applauded. Ndomby Flunsu is a Kinshasa, Zaire, sophomore in Liberal Arts and Sciences. What the destiny of the hall will be, I do not know. Whatever happens, those walls on 1122 West Campus Road always will tell the story of an outstanding KU student. For, as we would say in Africa, Brian is not dead. He lives in those walls. He lives in our memories. He lives at KU. THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Puny fines belittle violations Student Senate's imposition of frivolous campaign penalties will not deter future infractions As if to prove that the fun has not entirely gone out of Student Senate, the Elections Commission recently decided to fine Vision $10 and Unless $5 for the heinous crimes of hanging campaign posters without permission, using masking tape to hang up posters and hanging posters in front of Wescoe Hall. It is a relief to find that the Elections Commission was merciful and saw fit not to impose the death penalty on these criminals. But Student Senate has spent the last three months screaming for people to take it seriously, and piss-ant fines such as these are not a path to respectability. If the Elections Commission really thinks that these are serious campaign violations, then impose serious penalties. If a coalition is found guilty of campaign violations, take away one seat it won in the election for every violation and then award it to another coalition. Or make the fines large enough to really deter campaign violations. The impression that handing out such small fines gives is that these are not really serious violations and that Student Senate is being frivolous in imposing them. Moreover, it will be difficult for the Elections Commission to enforce this decision, especially where Unless is concerned, because most of the members of that coalition lost in the elections. Will the commission get the registrar's office to put a hold on the coalition members' enrollments until the fines are paid? Will they hire thugs to collect? If Senate really wants to improve its image and prove to the students of this University that they are not just wasting time and money on petty things, reworking the Elections Commission would be a good place to start. Mark Coatney for the editorial board ASK needs cooperation of all K-State and Wichita State threaten existence of student lobbying group lobbying group The Associated Students of Kansas, the student-financed lobbying organization of Kansas Regents schools, could fall on hard times if rebel members of Kansas State and Wichita State universities have their way. K-State's Student Senate has not provided for dues payments to ASK, and after this weekend's policy council meeting there are strong indications that Wichita State will do the same. If this happens, the University of Kansas and all Regents schools will suffer severely at the hands of the Legislature. The reason such action is being taken by K-State and Wichita State is that they feel they aren't getting their money's worth from the organization. Their concerns are valid. However, to take such a radical step as to stop financing is irresponsible and ridiculous. Such an action not only harms the K-State and Wichita State students but it also affects every student whose school depends on state funds. Many people forget that ASK has influence on state financing for Regents schools. The dues provided by student senates are used to hire two full-time lobbyists and provide proper administrative and office assistance. Have K-State and Wichita State realized this before embarking on a policy with such reckless abandon? If they do leave the ASK fold, KU has much to worry about. If ASK is forced under by this action, the constant student voice will be diminished significantly, and lobbying will be compromised. This will result in a poorer educational environment for KU. A reasonable approach would be for all the universities to sit down, iron out their individual differences and make ASK more effective instead of destroying the organization outright - an idea that has been advocated by KU leaders. For the benefit of all students, KState and Wichita State should change their policies and work within the system. Stephen Martino for the editorial board The Times, London, on the execution of Robert Harris: The gassing of Robert Harris in California was an obscene spectacle. In any other country such an on-off monk execution, a form of psychological torture, would be condemned as a cruel violation of human rights. The United States has long aspired to the moral high ground in preaching human rights around the world. For too long, its friends and admirers have muted their criticism of its own arbitrary practice of legal execution. The Harris case, with all the doubts over his conviction and troubled background, is particularly disturbing. The death penalty is an uncivilized and unjustified punishment: The cat-and-mouse game played with the anguished inmates of death row is doubly inhumane and intolerable. International roundup - Tagsanzeiger, Zurich, Switzerland, on Libya It is understandable that the United States, Britain and France need to seek justice for mass murders. And there is no question that the Libyan government has to take responsibility for terrorist acts. But Arab commentators who say that Libya is the victim of double standards are right. The attacks against Pan American World Airways and United Airlines stirred worldwide indignation; but Arabs received only expressions of sympathy when, in 1988, a U.S. warship shot down an Iranian airbus. Many Arabs believe that other countries that are guilty of misconduct escape more lightly than Arabs. Even the most serious recent cases of state terror and human-rights abuses in Romania, Chile, Cambodia, China, Syria, Burma, Iran and others did not provoke sanctions, with the exception of Iraq. The Security Council never reacted in the same strong manner against other grave violations of U.N. resolutions, for instance by Israel or Turkey. The U.N. has made an example of Libya, while other countries have escaped because it would be politically or economically inconvenient to punish them. The principle of selection for opportunistic reasons resembles old power politics rather than a New World Order. El País Madrid, Spain, on Libya: The enforcing of the sanctions against Libya, decided on by the Security Council, demonstrates the failure of recent efforts by several Arab countries to find a compromise solution. A negative aspect of the current phase is that the Security Council appears to subject to pressure exercised by the United States. Libya is being treated differently from other countries whose complicity with terrorism has been patent, such as Syria or Iran. It must not be forgotten that the United States has committed serious errors in its relations with Libya, for example the 1966 bombing of Tripoli with numerous civilian victims as an act of reprisal for a discontoque attack in Berlin. The Security Council decisions are political ones, but they must not substitute a legal judgment. Pravda, Moscow, on Afghanistan: The situation in Afghanistan has drastically worsened. Taking into account that Najibullah is not only president but also leader of the Motherland party, former People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, which during all these years has been confronting the mujhadeen, it is possible to presume that some of his allies, who are not inclined to such defeatist gestures, might stage a coup attempt. Many observers do not believe that the situation can be saved by political means, not even through the efforts of the United Nations. Involuntary associations with 1975 arise, when the Saigon regime fell and the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh. What happened next is well-known. Perhaps this explains why the Russian Embassy in Kabul has started sending home its personnel. Now, by manifesting indifference to the developments around Kabul, the Russian leadership and the entire world community might involuntary become accomplices in the tragedy that will happen if Kabul repeats the fate of Indo-Chinese capitalists. The Globe and Mail, Toronto, on Russia: Just a few months after cheering the birth of Russian democracy, Western leaders are finding the infant's behavior a bit, well, trying. Finance ministers from Washington to London blanched when Russia's parliament, the Congress of People's Deputies, threw a prolonged tantrum over President Boris Yeltsin's bold program of economic reform. On the assumption that Moscow would move rapidly to establish a working market economy, Western governments have promised Yeltsin's government billions of dollars in aid — money that would be wasted if the reforms bog down. Yeltsin has played his parliamentary opponents like a balalaika. KANSANSTAFF VANESSA FUHRMANS Managing editor TIFFANYHARNESS Editor TOM EBLEN General manager,newsadviser Editors News Mike Andrews Editorial Bert Randall Planning Lara Gold Campus Eric Gorski/Rochelle Olson Sports Eric Nelson Photo Julie Jacobson Features Debbie Myers Graphics Alimee Brainard/J Jeffeesm Editors JENNIFER CLAXTON Business manager JAYSTEINER Retail sales manager JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser Business Staff Campus sales mgr Bill Lobishenko Regional sales mgr Richie Marshawboro National sales mgr Scott Haiths Co-op sales mgr Atkinson Johnson Production mgrs Kim Wallace Marketing director Lisa Keeler Creative director Lesley Kwan Classified mgr Chip Chin Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must also be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be phonetic. Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be phonetic. The Kansas reserves the right to reedit or edit guest letters, guest cartons. They can be written in italics if necessary. Stick by David Rosenfield