Opinion
Kansan
4A
Published daily since 1912
Lindsay Henry, Editor Marc Harrell, Business manager Dave Morantz, Managing editor Colleen Eager, Retail sales manager Kristie Blasi, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news advisor Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Monday, April 13, 1998
CONTRIBUTED ART
Feedback
Discrimination by certain Delta Force senators wrong
As the president of KU Veterans Association, I would like to describe what it really is like to deal with Student Senate. My organization was formed to support military veterans and ROTC students at the University of Kansas. It was formed with the best of intentions, and we have done nothing to offend any other group of students. So I didn't expect our group to be attacked by members of the self-proclaimed advocate of diversity and tolerance called Delta Force. Delta Force claims that it is dedicated to improving the quality of life for all KU students. However, recent events have proven to me that for some individuals in the organization, this claim is a sham.
When I started my organization, the only thing I knew about Delta Force was that they claimed to be a grassroots organization and often accused other senators of being elitist and unresponsive to the concerns of students. Imagine my surprise when members of Delta Force refused to get in touch with me to discuss my organization, even after I contacted their presidential candidate several times. Imagine my greater surprise when several Delta Force senators and their presidential candidate turned away from me when I walked past them in Strong Hall. Imagine my disgust when a Delta Force senator turned his back on me two times in one day when I was trying to talk to him outside the Senate office. I guess their "support" for diversity and tolerance doesn't apply to veterans and future military officers. The way that these Delta Force senators treated me made me think that it was pointless to request funding for my group from Senate until I saw that all of the Campus Cause senators supported my organization and fought for us in Senate.
The conduct of certain Delta Force senators became much worse when I appeared before Senate and two Senate committees, where I had to listen to hours of insults, objections and unjustified attacks on my organization from Delta Force senators. This conduct of certain Delta Force senators does not
measure up to the benevolent public image that the organization tries to present to the students.
Is it really so bad to try and help students who have served their country? I don't think so.
First, Delta Force attacks Campus Cause senators, and now they attack veterans and ROTC students. Who's next? The character assassination that certain members of Delta Force use to attract support is creating voter apathy at the University because it shows a lack of respect for the choices made by the students during the last election. My hope for this election is that every military veteran, reservist, retiree and every other student who cares about fairness and professional conduct in the Student Senate will think about what I have said before they vote this week.
David Perico
Lawrence sophomore
Affirmative action column unresearched, incorrect
This is in response to the April 9, 1998 column on affirmative action. I am finally fed up with all of the misrepresented affirmative article articles being written to The University Daily Kansas. In each column, the writers say that affirmative action is used mostly for race. They say that the supposedly greatest benefactors are African-Americans. If people actually would do their research and study up on affirmative action, they would realize that the largest benefactors of affirmative action are Caucasian women.
However, if people want to continue to make this an African American/Caucasian issue and not a minority issue, in which women are included according to the U.S. government, then take a close look at the facts. Affirmative action was started primarily because of the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education case. Yes, the ruling was to desegregate schools, but the ruling never had a time frame during which the schools had to allow African Americans in. The ruling was handed down in 1954, but the last school was desegregated in 1979 — 25
years after the ruling. Wow, that action really was affirmative, huh?
Now try to follow me on these facts. It has been only about 30 years since affirmative action was first implemented, but slavery was around for more than 400 years. With discrimination still around in the 1950s and '60s, my parents already were in those "poor black" schools and could not afford to go to, or could not get accepted into, those "rich white" schools. Therefore, they could not receive the best education to attend these "white" institutions and receive a better education to obtain the prestigious "white" jobs of corporate America.
Truthfully, affirmative action just now is starting to be useful. More minority children born in the '60s, '70s, and later now are able to reap the benefits of affirmative action. They now are able to attend prestigious "white" colleges, obtain prestigious "white" jobs, live in prestigious "white" neighborhoods, and send their children to prestigious "white" schools. There they can get the proper college prepatory skills to attend and get accepted to prestigious institutions on the basis of their education, not on the color of their skin. I am not attacking inner-city schools. I am responding to the fact that universities look in suburbia schools for potential students before they go to inner-city schools. That is not right, but that is America.
In 15 to 30 years, we hopefully no longer will need affirmative action (granted that racism is on the decline or even gone). I do agree that affirmative action may need to be reformed a little, but it still is an asset in today's society. Yes, Martin Luther King, Jr. did say that we should be judged on the content of our character and not the color of our skin. However, he did not expect racism still to be around 30 years after his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. If you don't believe me, ask those who are still being fired, turned away, jailed and even beaten because of the color of their skin. In the end, all that needs to be said is that my ancestors and women waited more than 400 years for their freedom and equality. America definitely can wait another 15 before it removes affirmative action.
Kansan staff
Adrian T. Franks St.Louis, Mo., junior
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“He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare. And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.”
—Ali ibn Aalball, *A hundred Sayings*
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All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stufaer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Paul Eakins (eakins@kansan.com) or Ann Premer (apremer@kansan.com) at 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the staff page (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Perspective
Followership is the key to good, true leadership
discovered the secret of true leadership in an unexpected way.
As a KU instructor of French, I often go to the department on weekends because my supervisor, Fri. David Diunne,
is usually there working,
planning, and writing
memos.
Donato
Fhunsu
opinion@kansan.com
One Saturday, I went to the department and headed directly to my mailbox. Sure enough, there was an important memo. Since the memo was long, it took me some time to read and digest it. Dinneen, who had heard me arrive and then fade into silence, came out of his office to see what had become of me.
When he saw that I was
reading the memo, he said, "How strange! You read the memos?" I found the question out of place and asked him in turn, "Aren't the memos written to be read?"
He said, "Yes, that is the ideal. However, during the many years I have been department chair and GTA trainer, my main complaint has been that people don't read the memos. It is strange. It seems that in our department and in society in general, there is not a dearth of good leaders but of good followers. Followership is what we need to understand and practice."
Followership I never had thought about that. In January, I participated in a leadership training retreat. And because it was a leadership thing, we dissected leadership from the leadership angle, not the followership perspective. However, since that conversation with Dinnen, I have thought a lot about followership. It has occurred to me that as far as life experience, inner strength, insight and wisdom are concerned, human beings seem to stand on a symbolic ladder, according to the level of these qualities they possess and express. Those who express only some of these are at the lower part of the ladder, those who express more are in the middle, and those who express the most are at the upper part.
Each one of us stands on a certain rung of this ladder of life. Behind us stand millions of people. To them we have to extend a helping hand, a comforting heart, and an enlightening mind, so that their journey on the path of life is not so lonely, dark, or hopeless. Before us stand many people. Among these people are not only those who are living in physical incarnation among us, but also those who have lived on earth in the
past but are now out of incarnation. These, depending on the culture, are called ancestors, elders, saints, gurus, marabous or masters. Whatever their names, their positions are the same. They have sojourned on the path of life before us, known joy and pain, overcome the limitations and developed the potential of human existence. And, whether in or out of incarnation, they are always with us, helping us lift our consciousness a notch higher, realize our humanity and experience our inherent divinity.
To these free spirits we must look for example, aid, and understanding. Since they have mastered what we are trying to master, to them we are followers. If we understand this, we will be effective in our lives and we will provide more effective leadership to those who come behind us and need our help. The apostle Peter might have had the same idea in mind when he said, "For this [suffering] you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21).
However, in our society today the idea of following somebody is aversive. We see it as a sign of weakness. We don't want anybody to lecture us about anything, to tell us what to do or how to do it. We don't want to stand behind anybody; we want to be in front of everybody. With this common idea of leadership, we fool ourselves into thinking that it is that simple.
True leadership, however, is painful. Often it takes away your appetite, sleep, and peace. Sometimes the pain can be so intense that we find ourselves crying out as Jesus did: "Father, if it is your will, take this cup [of leadership] away from me; nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:42). Because true leaders are committed to the very will of life itself, their individual wills seem to have become one with the will of life.
As a result, the power, love, wisdom and light of life freely flow through them to the rest of humanity and they accomplish what we call miracles. Since they are followers of life, they have gone to the heart of life and from that center they receive their vision and the power to bring that vision to reality. And when all the power of life is working with them, they cannot fail in what we do for the service of humanity.
That is why true leaders consistently change the world for the better, and we wonder how they do it. They do it because they have discovered the secret of followership, a secret freely shared with us—if we are willing to follow in their steps.
Fhunsu is a Lawrence graduate student in French.
Dangerous intersection is noticed only after death
A after reading a column by John Colbert in *The University Daily Kansan* about the accident that caused the death of Lisa Rosel, I felt obligated to write a column
myself. On Sept. 13, 1997, at 14th and Tennessee streets, I almost was killed when a car hit me broadside while I was riding a motorcycle. I suffered a severe head injury, short-term memory problems, torn cartilage in my left knee, a fractured kneepac, and lifelong scars all over my body. I know I was not the first to be involved in an accident at this dangerous intersection, and recently I discovered that I was not the last. It has taken the tunic
Jason Pallai
opinion @ kansan.com
It has taken the tragic death of a beautiful, young woman to open the eyes and ears of our public officials and civic leaders to the obvious congestion at this intersection. Important issues like this are not examined until someone dies and the local media brings it to the public's attention. When John Colbert wrote a column about my accident, I did not hear about or see any coverage of my accident by the local newspapers. The local media certainly were not interested in investigating why I almost was killed. Nor was a front page feature article written about the 65-year-old man who hit me while turning from the right lane. He and I never were given
blood-alcohol tests to determine the cause of the improper left turn across another lane.
After Lisa Rosel died, Chancellor Robert Hemenway was quoted in the Kansan talking about his concern for the investigation. Now we all certainly are sorry about what happened, and I am sure the chancellor is concerned about the accident. But chancellor, why does it take a certain fatality to spark your interest in the dangers of this intersection? Why is it that the only reason you did not have interest in my accident was because I did not die? I only lived because I missed a telephone pole and a fire hydrant by inches while being propelled through the air.
The sad fact remains that Lisa Rosel was killed, and my thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family. Another sad fact is that getting the attention of the media, public officials and civic leaders requires someone to die. The congestion and sometimes utter mayhem at 14th and Tennessee streets is ridiculous, and John Colbert has testified to that more than once. The intersection needs major changes to make it safer for both pedestrians and motorists. The chancellor and the police did not take such interest in this dangerous intersection after my near-fatal accident. If such interest had been taken, perhaps some changes to this intersection could have been made that would have prevented the death of Lisa Rosel.
Pallai is a Highland Park, Ill., senior in economics.
Feedback Death of student article insensitive
I did not appreciate picking up *The University Daily Kansan* only to find a diagram of where Lisa Rosel was killed. Nor did I find it appropriate that on the Opinion page there was a column that described the event in detail talking about how people where screaming and pleading. This is not journalism. This is sensationalism at its height. Did the *Kansan* stop to think about how the people who knew her would feel? I couldn't even read the paper after seeing the disgusting
Minority groups unite to achieve goals
Britta Ernst
Topeka sophomore
display on the front and then that column on the Opinion page. Morbid fascination is not license to exploit someone's unfortunate death for some copy. You have failed your readers.
I want to thank you, Shyra Darris and the editorial board, for noticing and writing about the unity and activism among minority student organizations at the University of
Kansas in your editorial in Thursday's University Daily Kansan. I also have felt that there is a new spirit of unity among minority student organizations, and it's wonderful to see us working together on issues that face all of us together and also on issues that may affect some of our groups more than others.
Thanks again for the article. I also like the "Pat on the Back" editorial on Tuesday. Rochelle Votaw certainly deserved recognition for her amazing efforts to organize the Affirmative Action rally.
Christine Robinson Lawrence graduate student