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Friday, September 23. 1988 / University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Opinion
Saying no is simple unless saying yes means survival
"Just say no to drugs and alcohol."
Nancy Reagan
- Newsweek, March 28, 1988
"Big city ghetto and barries are full of teenagers whose poverty and deprivation have immunized them to both hope
Poverty and hope. Those are the two key words, because in the inner-city ghetto to hope is often former, and drugs are a more direct form of the latter.
But drugs are easy to say no to. What do you need with drugs when you have $75 Ray Bans, a closet full of Pulos, and a steady family income? Come on, this is America. Everybody has that stuff, right? 'What's with this drug thing?'
Well, surprise Nancy, Ron and America. There is a world beyond the country club and the Plaza. It's called the ghetto. And it's become well-known in the big city that dealing drugs has become more than just a way to get a quick rush or make a few thousand bucks for a shiny new Mercedes to show off to the homebags.
Throughout urban wastelands, impoverished heads of shattered households are turning their backs as their children, often the newly designated breadwinners of the family, lay down wads of cash they earned helping big-time drug deal-
Why? Because nobody wants to just say no — to food on the table, to milk for a crying baby, to heat in the winter, to a fan outside.
The huge cuts in social programs by the Reagan administration in the early '80s are paying off — in a nightmare drug problem that the government can't control. Drugs are becoming to take an increasing part of the class America: Its main means of economic survival.
"If you are a casual drug user, you are an accomplice to murder." Nancy Reagan once said.
But by saying no to a fair share of the drug profits pouring into the ghetto, many welfare mothers may be killers too, as they watch their children starve because the food stamps didn't quite make it to the end of the month.
The hollow promises continue to ring from Washington for a crackdown on the influx of drugs.
But as long as there is a demand, there will be a supply. And as long as there is no hope, there will be a demand among inner-city residents to gain their slice of the American pie, any way they can.
Mark Tilford for the editorial board
To be the best is a shared dream. Few endeavors rank with the striving for a small moment of history when a nation or a culture has won a great victory.
One week has passed since 161 nations, more than any previous turnout in the Olympic Games, gathered in Seoul on June 7.
Politics, Olympics don't mix
Since World War II, and probably even decades before then, the Olympics have come to represent far more than the quadratic stage where athletic competition is displayed. In the past, it was a political playground where many puerile acts have occurred.
For the first time in twelve years, the U.S. and Soviet athletes have matched talents in the summer Games. In 1984, the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Games to voice its political rejection of the United States' boycott of the Moscow games.
Despite protests from radical students burning firebombs and rocks at riot police and defacing the Olympic flag, the world has been on relatively good behavior in an atmosphere that is capable of yielding. In recall the unfaded Tiger 2013 Munich Game.
This year only North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Albania and the Sevchelles are bowcocking the Games.
But six nations boycoting is six too many. The Olympics have lost their original purpose of promoting international understanding between cultures. the competition has left the days when wars were put on hold so that the Games could be held to today, when they have become a vehicle for exchanging resentment.
In the remaining days of the Games of the 24th Olympiad, let the athletes represent individual dreams, not nations and not political ideologies. And let the Games be exactly that — games.
Tony Balandran for the editorial board
News staff
Todd Cohen ... Editor
Michael Horak ... Managing editor
Julie Adam ... Associate editor
Stephen Wade ... News editor
Michael Mershel ... Editorial editor
Noel Genders ... Campus editor
Craig Anderson ... Sports editor
Dave Nienberg ... Photo editor
Dave Eames ... Graphics editor
Jill Earnest ... Artificial Features editor
Tom Ebble ... General manager, news advisor
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Greg Knipp
Business manager
Debra Cole.
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Promotional
Sarah Hardgon
Marketing manager
Brad Lenhart
Production manager
Michael Lehman
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Michael Lehman
Classified manager
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MICHALD
UNIVERSITY DAVIS KANSAS
Proud ignorance fuels movement Hollow talk, violence of skinheads gains national attention
"Dude, you just don't understand the movement. The music, the clothes, the haircut, the whole look is part of the movement. If you weren't it to wrap up in your pants, you'd understand what movement is all about."
Okay, so maybe I'm a little naive. Maybe I've been led astray by mainstream society. I am a bit attached to my car, my cotton sweaters, my major, and my fraternity.
Tell me about the "movement." I guess I could be persuaded to shave my head, but you'll have to tell me what it's all about so I can help you change the world.
"Dude, the movement is... it's more than just a movement." It is a whole way of life. It's like a game of catching.
"Yeah, it's better than a philosophy; it's a movement."
At that point I gave up and dismissed the "Skinhead movement" as just a jad. I lumped it together with Corona beer and cut-off, rolled-leuvis and forgot about it. I'm capable of being things like that when I want to be. Besides, they weren't bumping me from the classes I wanted.
Only better?
Lately, though. I've noticed that the Orcad skinhead have covertly taken to coast and to mount a campaign he has taken notice of in "ment." Apparently there is a philosophy behind the rebellion that includes many unseemly elemet
I knew there was some sort of violence involved, rough dancing and such, but it all seemed internal. I didn't get my kicks from slam-dancing and not but the "live and live" seed an applicable rule.
Dan Houston
Staff columnist
What I have since learned about the movement takes the quotation marks away. It is a very real and a very frightening movement, especially when it is accepted by educated people in an educated
It seems the dress code, the music and the violence are symbolic of the underlying philosophy. What we are witnessing is an attempted renaissance of fascism, now called neofascism.
The dress code is intended to set those in the movement apart from the rest of us. The long-dead idea that one race or group of people is superior over another is not to be to the key to demonstrating one's superiority.
The music does more than induce the kind of frustration that facilitates slam-dancing. It brings to life the discord our society promotes. Discord in music is the mixing of notes that don't properly mix. Discord in society, for this philosophy, is the mixing of people and races that not naturally mix.
The violence flows from the uniqueness and the discord. When superior persons are forced by society to interact with their inferiors, discord arises. The inferior is against society and his inferiors is the solution.
"Dude, where do you get off trying to understand the movement?"
Well, my hunch is that I understand the movement better than most of the students who have adopted its symbolism. I incliné to believe that most of the Oread skinheads don't know what they are doing because they are too busy promoting the movement, and what they are saying to the rest of the campus.
We at the University of Kansas pride ourselves on being part of an enlightened community that seeks knowledge. But some of our number would choose blissful ignorance.
On the surface they seem to have a purpose in life, a mission. They appear to be fighting for well-being.
In that respect, one might be inclined to compare the new radicals with the radicals of the 1900s. But the political context in which the 68s fought for radical liberal politics. They wanted equal rights for all; they didn't want their fellow human beings to die in an unnecessary war. They wanted the United States to fulfill its potent vision.
These 1900s radicals, on the other hand, are reactionary conservatives. They fight for separatism from Europe and North America not, they fight for recreation. They are unable to comprehend the significance of America's potent cultural legacy.
Although the flower children can look back in their past, they will not be able to remember the children of the old's will look back in emBRASMENT and be forced to claim deliberate ignorance. The Tulsa is a Tukas,Okay,colon majoring in political science.
Most of the children of the '60s eventually came to the realization that what they sought was unrealistic. And so will the radicals of the '80s also give up their future struggle for unattainable goals.
K A N S A N
MAILBOX
Lighten up, coach
Darr Dillar Samuel's, Mike Dinell and Mike Whitaker "wimp out" when they quit the KU football team earlier this week?" Did they give up hundred dollars of worth of scholarships because the build-up of lactic acid in their stomachs can tach to bear every night? That is very unlikely.
"We go in full of confidence, and were downgraded," said Samuel, one of the three who the team earlier in the week. "We go through a day of practices and meetings and we are criticized and downgraded. Some guys support that, and some guys don't. I don't, to Iceland."
Gosh Darin — what’s your deal? Do you mean to say you don’t like to be yelled and screamed at day after day, after you’ve given up on the job or positive reinforcement? Do you and your teammates couldn't even beat the No. 6 (now No. 4)
team in the nation! What right do you have to
be a No. 6?
Consider what kind KU football players have to put up with, they have plenty of right to make a statement.
It seems Coach Mason employs the horse-hipwing theory when coaching football: if the horse does not do what it is supposed to do, you whip it until it does. No horse like to be whipped when it fails to follow instructions. If it is whipped regularly eventually it won't be able to respond physically.
The same is true of football players. No player likes to be yelled and screamed at when he fails to follow instructions. If it is verbally abused the team will respond. This time the reason will be mental.
Of course coach Mason wants to make the KU football team respectable. Obviously, the way to make a team respectable is to start winning. If KU begins winning, it will facilitate recruiting for Mason and his staff. However, when this year's recruits read about the eight players who dropped from the KU program because they were not recruited, the KU program may think two things about coming to KU.
Mason needs to start thinking about giving his
players an occasional pat on the back. He also has to learn to contain his biting criticism of his players. If Coach Muramasa doesn't lighten up a bit he might end up losing a future KU intramural (football games)
This situation needs to be rectified immediately. If KU football players continue to drop like Mike Tyson's boxing opponents, KU's team will be beyond repair. Things need to be changed.
Rich Bennett
Overland Park freshman
Adamantly for Dole
Politics is a lot like education, lest we forget he supporters of Senate Minority Leader Bob Jole. Even though he lost a battle, he is continuing the war.
We generally don't call upon our discipline to study until we need a degree. Likewise, we do not call upon our privilege of voting for a tran-
*servant.* A servant serveur an Dato de
*nuile* until we are in trouble.
Kathee Crough Salina senior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed
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