CAMPUS / AREA
University Daily Kansan/Fridav, April 17.1992
3
Marchers try to show meaning of Easter
By Katherine Manweiler
Kansan staff writer
Colored eggs and the Easter Bunny can sometimes overshadow the spiritual aspect of Easter.
"I think Easter and the meaning of Easter is largely overlooked, and Easter apart from the cross is mean- ingless." Nuenke said.
But four KU students and a Lawrence resident, wearing monk robes and carrying a 6-foot by 8-foot wooden cross, marched yesterday on the sidewalk along Jayhawk Boulevard to make a statement about the religious significance of Easter.
Doug Nuenke, Lawrence resident,
helped organize the march.
Nuenke said the cross represented the death and resurrection of the son of God. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ died on a cross to take the punishment for the sins of the world and came back to life three days later.
Nuenke said the marchers decided to wear monk robes with hoods because they did not want to detract from the effect of the cross.
"We just see that it's real easy for people to get the attention whenever any issue is raised on campus," he said. "So we wanted to do it in a way where personalities and individuals wouldn't get the focus, but the cross would get the focus."
Student reactions varied. Some students laughed, and others quickly averted their eyes from the marchers. Still others quietly joined the marchers in handing out religious tracts and talking to spectators.
Most students kept their distance
from the marchers.
Ami Hizer, Lawrence freshman, said that she was an atheist and that the march made her curious.
"They're allowed to their own opinions, and if they want to tell everyone that Easter is a great religious holiday, that's fine as long as they don't shove it down our throats," Hizer said. "I think it's really cool that they can peacefully do that."
Shea Knorr, Wichita junior, said he joined the marchers because he agreed that KU students needed to realize the spiritual significance of Easter.
"If you want people to know about something on this campus, sometimes you have to do something radical," Knorr said. "This might be considered radical."
Ryan Hartnett, Lawrence junior,
said he was ambivalent about the message
of the marchers.
"Icould care less about what they're doing," Hartnett said, gesturing toward the religious pamphlet the marchers gave him. "I'm going to put my gum in this and throw it in the trash."
"Obviously, I had some butterflies," Sheridan said. "It's not something you do every day. I was too busy trying to not fall over with that cross on my back to be nervous."
The group plans to march again today, starting at 11:30 in front of the Kansas Union.
Sean Sheridan, Scotts Valley, Calif., senior, participated in the march. He said he was unsure how other students would respond to the effort.
A group of students wearing priestly garb march down Jayhawk Boulevard to remind others of the significance of the Easter holiday.
Speaker castigates radicals
David Horowitz speaks to a crowd of about 100 people at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
Marxist-turned-conservative author blames the left for social problems
By Andy Taylor
Kansan staff writer
The pitfalls of U.S. political culture are caused by liberal radicals forcing their beliefs on society, a Marxist-turned-conservative author said last night.
Horowitz, a self-described "second thoughter" who rethought his beliefs, said radical thinkers caused the departure from morality.
David Horowitz, author, politica commentator and former radical spoke to about 100 people on "Decon structuring the Left" at Woodruff Auditory in the Kansas Union. The Oread Society, Young America's Foundation and the KU department of political science sponsored the speech.
Horowitz, whose parents were members of the Communist Party, said he was a leftist radical in the 1960s.
"Radicalism is a permanent temper tantrum," he said. "Radicalism has this Santa Clausian vision to overthrow the oppressive, upright, Judeo-Christian beliefs. And this being the most tolerant place on Earth, we went along with it."
A co-founder of the free speech movement at the University of California-Berkley, Horowitz said involvement of the United States in Vietnam changed his political ideology.
The people who protested did not oppose the war, they opposed America, he said. "When the Communists won, mainly because of our protests, they killed more people in two years than they did in all of the years of
David Horowitz author and political commentator
war," he said.
Horowitz said he also believed that radicals in the homosexual community were responsible for the increase in AIDS.
"When I was a kid, we had a polio epidemic," he said. "And the answer was to shut down the swimming pools. We can't shut down all of the bath houses because the radicals say we will be interfering with a certain lifestyle. So successful were the radicals in persuading this that they killed several hundred thousand people."
Horowitz also gave his opinion of other social issues.
■ On the theory of natural rights:
"The Declaration of Independence said that we have certain unalienable rights. The federal government cannot take these away. This is what Clarence Thomas meant by natural law."
■ On government financing of the National Endowment of the Arts: “It is a bad idea for the government to be funding arts. When you are given an artist, you should be given an artist. And the government has to adjudicate what is and isn’t consid-
eredart. It has nothing to do with censorship."
On confrontational debates between opposing viewpoints: "Even though shots aren't fired, confusion continues." The public's space is intolerable.
Students who attended the speech said they agreed with some of Horowitz'sideas.
Horowitz also said he would advocate a return to a conservative lifestyle.
Eric Fioloski, Topea senior,
it says "It's interesting to hear a
speaker who doesn't rub your nose into anything. I didn't necessarily agree with all of his views. But it keeps the radicals honest, that's for sure."
Wendy Kirkpatrick, Modesto,
Calif., sophomore, said that even
though she considered herself a liberal thinker, she, too, agreed with Horowitz.
"I can understand his thinking of a new morality," Kirkpatrick said. "It made me aware that there are other venues out there."
Pulitzer recipients pass on their secrets
By Andy Taylor
Kansan staff writer
Reporter Jeff Taylor knows the power of the pen.
He and eight other journalists from the Kansas City Star completed a 16-month investigation last December that examined the practices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and won a Pulitzer Prize last week.
"When the first story came out last fall, there was a preacher in Kansas who actually read the entire story to his congregation for his Sunday sermon." Taylor said.
Because of the series of stories,
*Failing the Grade: Betrayals and
hullders at the Department of Agriculture
on the Pulitzer for national reporting.
Taylor, a 1984 KU graduate, along with Star reporters Mie McGraw and Greg Reeves, spoke to KU journalism classes yesterday.
"I had always wanted to do an investigation that examined a federal department," Taylor said. "I wanted to examine the bureaucracy, the crazy jobs and the crazy programs involved with the USDA. Plus, we wanted to do the story because of the Midwest's relation to agriculture."
He said the reporters were prepared to examine thousands of documents and interview hundreds of people, but they were surprised at the enormousness of the USDA's bureaucracy.
"We already knew the numbers," Taylor said. "We knew that the USDA had 130,000 employees over most of the country. But we had no idea that the USDA was such a large, Byzantine bureaucracy."
Taylor said journalists needed to examine carefully the things such as the USDA that affected their lives instead of trivial, talk-show matters.
"Ihopewe, as Americans, stayaway"
"... We had no idea the USDA was such a large, Byzantine bureaucracy."
Jeff Taylor reporter for the Kansas City Star
from the allure of the junk," he said. "A lot of papers are taking harder looks at things like city spending because that is what affects people's pocketbooks. The press catches a lot of hell for being evasive and hard-nosed, but that's what the press is supposed to be."
McGraw said that because of the publication of the stories, committees in the U.S. Congress would conduct hearings that examined USDA policies.
He said the reporters' investigation required trips to 22 states, including remote areas such as Sweetgrass, Mont., and Dewey Roads, Ga. The reporters toured meat-packing plants, manure-filled feedlots in western Kansas, numerous county extension offices and orange orchards in Florida.
McGraw said the biggest frustration was trying to gather information and documents from USDA officials. It has been called the Freedom of Information Act requests.
"We could go into a county extension agent's office and ask for Farmer Brown's payment record, and they would give it to us," he said. "But if we ask for the payment record of every farmer, the USDA wouldn't give it to us. I don't understand that leap."