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Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, September 21, 1998
Leave the battle behind
As the smoke clears in the aftermath of last Wednesday's Student Senate meeting, it is time for the senators, and their constituents, to take a fresh look at things.
The meeting culminated in the passage of the controversial budget bill, which provides for the creation of a new budget committee to conduct all spring budget hearings and allocate about $2,000 in student activity fee money. During the course of the meeting, one student senator resigned and several others walked out. That's quite a bit of action for a first session.
As Senate settles down to work, however we can only hope its opposing factions agree to patch up their differences. The budget bill has been passed. Many people still have reservations about it, but there is no reason it shouldn't be given a chance to work.
The budget committee that will soon be
chosen should be strong and dedicated to its duties. The eight committee chairmen and 10 student senators who will serve on the committee probably know how frustrating the budgeting process has been in the past and should work to streamline it.
Non-senators can get involved in a number of ways, including applying to the new budget committee, to the Finance and Auditing Committee, which will still handle the fall supplementary budget hearings, or to any of the other standing committees, whose chairmen will automatically be part of the budget committee. As of now, budget committee hearings will be open to the public, giving all students an opportunity to offer suggestions and ideas.
The budget bill still leaves room for plenty of student participation. It's up to the students to help Senate make it work.
Brett strikes out with fans after unruly public behavior
George Brett may have been a viable candidate for president last year, but this year he doesn't deserve to be dogcatcher.
Brett, the Kansas City Royals third baseman, has been the initiator of several incidents since May that have been an embarrassment to Kansas City and a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands of loyal fans who helped make him a superstar.
Admittedly, it has been a disappointing season for Brett. Only late last week did he raise his batting average to .302, after a .390 average last year. But just because George has had an off-season is no reason for him to take out his aggressions on the sports reporters and photographers who have been giving him the publicity he deserves.
On May 14, when George was on crutches because of an ankle injury, he became irked
CINDY CAMPBELL
when a UPI photographer tried to take a picture of him. That poor photographer caught a crutch upside the head. George had made his first strike.
By the end of May, George was in a batting slump and must have thought demolishing several locker room toilets in Minnesota would be easier. George's second strike cost him almost $4,000.
The incident made papers across the country, but when Kansas City Times sports writer Mike Fish spilled the beans to Kansas City readers, George really got angry. He refused interviews with Fish and didn't speak to him until almost four months later. It's difficult to cover the Royals on a day-to-day basis when the star of the team won't talk to you.
Their first meeting, which came after last Monday's game against the California Angels,
began as a casual conversation but ended up as a boxing match in the lobby of the Anheuser-Hyatt Regency. Fish, in a telephone interview Thursday, was the first to receive coverage of the toilet-smashing incident, but that the conversation was genial. As Fish defended his reasons for writing the story, the Royals public relations director, Dean Vogelman, applauded him, according to Fish, that's when the vending started.
As the volume grew, Janice Carr, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, attempted to come to Fish's rescue and told Brett that if he wanted to be in the limelight, "he had to accept those kinds of things." It was reported by UPI that Brett said it happened when he never said Brett more or less stuck his finger in Carr's face and then, when she tried to remove it, pushed her in the face.
Fish said that when he told Brett he couldn't get away with pushing female reporters around, Brett swung at him and the scuffle began. Vogelaar and Royals left fielder Wilson eventually separated the two amid lots of yelling and screaming. Though no solid punches were caught by either Brett or Fish, in the separation process Fish ended up with several scratches on his face. He said he did not have a two-inch gash above his right eye, as reported by UPI.
Before Tuesday night's game, Fish said he received a superficial apology from Brett at Volgelaar's urging. Eventually the two shook hands and the incident was officially over.
By this time, however, George had struck out.
To the disgust of baseball fans everywhere, old
George was following the path of fellow prima
donna John McEnroe.
If only George would realize that Royals fans are very forgiving. We don't expect him to play like a superstar every game, every season. Behaving like a civilized human being, however, is one of the most important things he gives to give him another at bat. He's done as much for Kansas City as it fans have done for him.
Come on George, behave yourself before your fans send you walking.
The University Daily Kanas welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include the class and home town or faculty or staff position. The Kanas reserves the right to edit or reject letters.
18 Bob Gannon 01
Letters policy
--college without having had one year of foreign language prior to or during the college.
U.S. must shed cultural blinders
No one ever told us we'd have to change our ways.
Anyone, it's almost a cliche to point out that the world has changed, and that its parts are becoming increasingly interdependent. The fact remains, however, that something has indeed remained. For the first time in our national existence, the United States has become dependent on others. It seems that America is no longer as well. A 1977 Gallup Poll showed that 50 percent of all Americans didn't know the United States must import oil.
Emerging from World War II, the United States was virtually unchallenged—economically, politically, militarily, technologically. Who would have dreamed in 1945 that today, in 1881, our civilization would confront a completely different world?
Although we may yearn for simpler days, days when we could control events by sheer power, we must also remember our experiences in Indochina and Iran. In short, Americans need to be knowledgeable about the world around them.
However, by virtue of our education and upbringing, most of us lack knowledge of other peoples and the ability to communicate with them. Charles Bray, of the U.S. State Department, recently observed, "We are being thrown into contact and conflict with people whose histories and motivations we scarcely understand."
For example, he asked, aside from a few scholars, how many educated Americans appreciate, in even the vague way, the dynamism of Islamic cultures?
On an elementary level, very few Americans speak anyone else's language. The United States continues to be the only country where English is spoken in Illinois, where one can be graduated from
The facts are indeed shocking. One of every three U.S. acres produces crops for export and one of six manufacturing jobs is dependent on foreign trade. Yet less than 15 percent of high-school students take a foreign language. Further, enrollment in college language courses has dropped 21 per cent in the last 10 years.
In commerce and in government, the language gap is almost humorous. When General Motors put out its Chevrolet Nova, apparently one no thought of foreign sales. Nova, when spoken as two words in Spanish, means, "It doesn't go." Not surprisingly,
sales in Latin America floundered until the name was changed to Caribe.
DAVID HENRY
Equally ridiculous, the State Department can no longer afford to require any background in a second language for entry into the Foreign Service; only 25 percent of the entering trainees have even had a foreign language.
Certainly, language learning is not the direct answer to a better understanding of other societies. Its absence in our educational system is symptomatic of our ignorance toward the world.
Much of the problem can be traced to shortcomings in our educational system.
Language training and international studies do not have a foundation in primary and secondary schools. Most of us begin our respectable carers without a single course directly related to the international problems we face. Can you remember a classroom discussion on human rights, population, or internationalization or any other multinational problem?
Unfortunately, with only a few exceptions, our schools are caught up in curricula and degree requirements that don't reflect the change in the world around us.
The bulk of the solution, however, must come from the state and local level. Textbooks, curricula, the quality of language used in the training of teachers all must be reviewed.
Although education is part of the problem, it can also be a catalyst for improving language skills and world understanding. The change must come from every level. First, the federal government must acknowledge the need and provide adequate financial support.
Education at all levels should teach us to celebrate the diversity of the world and its differing traditions and beliefs. Americans can longer remain aloft from the world and
A United Nations official recently noted that a child born today will be sharing the earth with three times as many people 60 years from now:
"He will be both actor and beneficiary, or victim, in a total world fabric. And he might rightly ask: 'Why was I not warned?' Why was he not warned? What teachers not tell me about these problems?"
We can no longer afford to keep our isolationist attitudes. We must begin clearing up the air.
Arrests in Egypt violate basic legal rights
To the Editor:
We of the Muslim Student Association strongly condemn the recent political arrests by President Sadat of Egypt of his political opponents.
Approximately 1,500 political leaders, including parliament members, university professors, lawyers, students, members of political parties and Muslim and Christian religious leaders, have been arrested. These arrests are a clear violation of the human and legal rights which guarantee all people the freedom to express their views without persecution. Moreover, Sadat's actions are a violation of the Egyptian law prohibiting the
BUT I'M STILL VERY DEMOCRATIC. AS A MATTER OF FACT I'M HOLDING AN ELECTION!
We Muslims believe that this is but an expected consequence of actions aimed at the destruction of the Islamic movement, which strongly opposes Sada't's dictatorship. The Islamic movement in Egypt calls for the application of Islamic laws and rules in Egypt.
Sadat has put the pope of the Christian Coptic Church of Egypt, Pope Shunoda III, under detention. This arrest campaign is a step in what Sadat claims is the "prevention of a sectarian crisis." Since it began, Sadat has discovered that his popularity among Egyptian people has declined and plots have been made to overthrow him, as he declared on Sept. 5.
Sadat's latest actions are indications of what is actually going on in Egypt under his regime.
arrest of members of parliament by government police.
All Mokhtar
Topeka senior
Mustlim Student Association spokesman
Gung Fu apropos
To the Editor:
That Shaolin Gung Fu is being practiced at KU is highly appropriate.
The Shaolin Monastery in China, where this type of boxing originated, is in Henan Province about 50 miles southwest of the provincial capital of Zhengzhou.
Henan is formally the "sister" province of the state of Kansas; less formally, Zhengzhou University is KU's "sister." The still-active monastery has numerous murals depicting about 100 Gung Fu movements and the history of the art.
In the interest of international understanding, it should be noted that the monastery claims Gung Fu was invented by the monk Bodhidharma in the 6th century, not in the 16th century B.C., as your otherwise excellent story (Sept. 16 Kansas) says.
Roy E. Gridley Professor of English
MSA not involved
To the Editor:
Concerning the recent violent events that took place in the Kansas Union between two Iranian groups, we would like to point out that you
erroneously use our organization, resulting in a lot of trouble for our organization. For this reason we use the following keywords:
- As of this semester, there is only one Muslim organization on campus registered under the name "Muslim Student Association (MSA)." This organization is a chapter of the bigger organization, the Muslim Student Association of the United States and Canada.
The MSA of Lawrence has members from different countries, including the United States, with foreign partners.
Since the time our organization was established until now, there had never been a crisis.
- Our main goals include developing good relations and friendship with the American audience and letting people know about the peaceful nature of Islam.
Now, after our name has been misused in your newspaper, we are having a lot of trouble and complaints from many people. Police and reporters are calling us from time to time asking for more information about what happened as if we were a party to this violence.
Hamed Ghazali
Hameed Ghazal
President, Muslim Student Association
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