4 Tuesday, October 6, 1970 University Daily Kansan KANSAN comment Kansan Staff Photo by MIKE RADENCICH The Airplane Crash: One Who Was Lucky I first heard about the accident late Friday night while I was at work. A women had commented on how tragic it"it" was and when I asked her what, she replied, "Why, the plane crash that carried that football team." As the evening progressed, more of the pieces fell into place and the puzzle took on the air of tragedy. We learned that it was indeed a plane carrying a football team; then we found out that the team was on its way to Utah and had crashed in the Colorado mountains; the team was a college team based in Wichita. Then came the final blow—it was the “Gold” plane of the Wichita State Water Shockers and 29 people had been presumed dead. For a few of us, there were even more anxious moments—a man who was part of the journalism was all about was the sports information director at WSU. Could he have been on that plane? When the first realization came that he might have been on that plane and that he might have been one of those killed, I nearly became ill. Although I had not seen him for a year, I still was he one of the most outstanding men I had ever met. His name was Conrad Downing, known to some of his friends as Connie. He was my homeroom and journalism teacher in high school. A little more than a year ago, he left my old high school to go to Fort Hays State to become sports information director and just this last year, he moved to a similar position at WSU. I first met Connie in September of 1864. I was a sophomore in high school and he was my homeroom teacher. With one or two exceptions, we were all sophomores. The others were upperclassmen who were on the newspaper and yearbook staffs and who used that time to work on those publications. Besides being my journalism teacher, he was also the radio announcer for the Lawrence High basketball games. At the home games, I used to go up to the press help keep some of the scores and other statistics for him while he was on the air. Connie on school issues. The first one we worked on was a $3.8 million school bond issue. Connie was an officer of the Lawrence Education Association, so he helped many of the problems which would be alleviated if the bond issue passed. My senior year, besides being on the staff again, I would go with Connie to some football games that we would broadcast for a radio station in Ottawa. He told me that the issues in the past had all received voter approval, but they had been receiving less of the total vote each time they were brought up. I would walk into the room in the mornings and would then have to run out to the kitchen. During my junior year, I took my first journalism course from him and became the news editor for the paper. Those thoughts and related little incidents passed through my mind that night. I, probably the most exciting times I spent with Connie were during a trip to the Orange Bowl to see the KU tangle with Penn State. After my high school graduation, I continued to work with Connie on the football and basketball broadcasts. I was doing some of the color commentary, trying to follow the style of the man who was my teacher. Connie would make jokes after the games about some of the mistakes I made. In those jokes, I would always be able to find the reassurance that things would be all right in the end. Connie had never been to Miami (I think) and the two of us had a good time just bumming around when we were not attending at the Jayhawk headquarters desk. We drove down, kind of in a hurry, but nonetheless enjoying the sights as we went along. There at the game, you both yellled ourselves horse. When you are sitting behind a radio microphone, you have to control yourself and not yell. But we were not behind a microphone; we were in the stands and we were yelling. All of those things and more were running through my head that night after the "Gold" plane went down in the ocean. Mr. McIntosh I was tremendously relieved when that Connie had been on the "Black" plane and had not been hurt in the crash. For one hour each day, I would go into the journalism office and work with I then had time to go on to other thoughts. One of the men killed had been interviewed by Phil Higdon and me just before the state high basketball tournament. Bert Katzenmeyer was a very personable man. It was then that I realized how grateful Conrad Downing must have been. And at the same time, how sad. —Charlie Cape 'Comanche' as a Symbol Of a Minority Victory LETTERS We of Wichita State University who have for many years been making annual pilgrimages to the University of Kansas Composition and Literature conferences, perhaps the most exciting moment of which pilgrimages is the mandatory visit with Comanche, the Sole Survivor, must vigorously protest any attempt to remove him from the KU Museum of Natural History. He represents, to us, a mute testimony to what a minority can do in the presence of armed oppression, which might be a thought that would reach those who are never going to consider "the problems of today's Indians (etc.) poverty and unemployment" except under duress. We feel that the point would be made more strongly if the sign were changed to point out the fact that "Plenty of Indians survived that battle, too." To the Editor: James P. Erickson James P. Eriksson Carol Konek George Volkner Sharon Floerchinge Don T. Williamson Department of English, Wichita State University Meeting of Minds Go ahead, man, do your thing For you surely have the right. Waltz down the street in unusual garb. Take advantage of spring days and warm nights. To the Editor: Love, above all, for this you deserve Nature is beauty, creative, and divine. I too have this longing in my soul To love, to plan, and to design. I implore you to help us understand why we have not a meeting of minds. Consider our faults and good points too, for we are of many, many, kinds. If I say all your people are the same, You have the right to judge adults as such. Remember, we also love and do our thing And as you, we reserve the right to have as much. Cathy Hedge Independence sophomore MAKING OUR CASE An Old Postcard Shows the 1911 Burning of a Lawrence Building Response Comes Only When It's Too Late Editor's note: "Making Our Case" will be a regular feature on the editorial page of the Kanan, in which members of the KU Student Senate will explain, in detail, how to view with alarm and point with pride. The Kanan does not necessarily agree with the opinions expressed in this column; we simply feel that it is important to know what—and how—our elected representatives think. By BILL EBERT Student Body President ...did residents react with alarm, only to let the issue pass from their minds? Lawrence, Kansas is really a strange place to live. Although not too many things can happen around here anymore that really matter, anybody, some of the things that take place are pretty incredible. The events that occurred in Lawrence this summer and left two students dead did surprise everyone. To happen again today, nearly everyone would assign their pain—if he felt any—by concluding that it was bound to happen. I attended a dess meetings for discussion of “the problem” continue, and who knows how many ad hock, appointed peacemakers have worked to change in different directions? In some cases their motives are good, in others they’re laugful. I worry because nothing seems to be any impact from the way it was before. The city has shown me only one thing, really, and that one thing is that the people who live here, or those who deal with the problems which exist only after someone has been hurt, or killed because of them. The high school erupted, so they were dealt with the black students were dissatisfied, only to discover to their amazement that the black's complaints were predominantly about some black cheerleaders and relaxed into the complacent understanding that everything was cool. Then two students were brought to summer camp, where summer, so some people began to think about doing something to improve police-community awareness, it appears that some good news will be done to help them in this particular area, but it is far from coincidental that the city had to go to an outside agency—the Menninger Foundation—to find anyone without racist or antischool prejudices. Last week a KU student was severely burned and remains in critical condition because she was unable to escape from her burning apartment fast enough. Now it appears that some people are thinking about trying to escape, but most standards which have been on the books for years but have been largely ignored. It seems obvious to me that in nearly all of the cases of 'trouble' similar to and including the above, the pattern of the black members students (or both) have ultimately been the victims. It also seems obvious that in terms of progress and alleviation of this problem we were just about where we were last year at this time. These things all make me wonder what it is going to take for the people in Lawrence to collectively recognize that everything is not so good in Lawrence and that some people do not intend to put longer with conditions which have been the same for so long. Meanwhile we are continually told by predominant groups and institutions that Lawrence is well on the way to restoring itself, making "constructive changes," and in doing so he finds a place to live." That figures. There are too many people who have seen too much of the dark, unpublicized sides of Lawrence to believe that. There are too many people happening at the high school who live and work in the Lawrence ghetto, who know why this community has no black lawyers, no black doctors, few black businessmen, who know what is going on when they walk down Massachusetts Street, who know about the law Lawrence town's people look upon students as outsiders and disruptors in their daily lives. And they know these things for the business about 'a good place to be' or make any sense any longer. As I write this, the television is showing a film about the our main revolution, in which a young patriot is told that he is an ignorant, self-destructive fool. We don't expect our comfortably in control of things always twist their politics to their own benefit. So . . . it's not so much of a surprise see why the responses only after it is too late. Letters policy Letters to the editor should be type-written, double-spaced and should not exceed 500 words. All letters are sub-encoded according to space limitations and the editor's judgment. Students must provide their name, year in school and home town, faculty and staff must provide their contact information. Students must provide their name and address. 'Somebody ought to do something to stop this sort of thing.' THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN An All-American college newspaper Kusan Telephone Numbers Newsroom—UN-4 8108 Business Office—UN-4358 Published at the University of Kansas daily during the academic year except holidays and examination periods. Mail subscription rates $0 a semester, $10 a month. Must be registered as a Missouri State student or goods, services and employment offered offered to all students without reason in color, creed or national origin. Openness expressed are not necessarily intended as an endorsement. NEWS STAFF News Advisor... 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