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Thursday, October 26, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN The Column harms image of local greek community
"The Kansan is anti-greek," and "the Kansan just perpetuates greek stereotypes" have been two complaints heard all too often in the editors' office at the University Daily Kansan. Yet a greek publication, The Column, seems to have gone further in perpetuating Greek stereotypes in one issue than the Kansan has in one century.
The paper, which is published in Oklahoma but is composed mostly of KU Greek contributions, lists the No. 1 transition a fraternity pledge must make as "Learning to grab ankles (sic) and mumble that catch phrase, 'Thank you sir, may I have another.'"
And in a column, the paper's only staff "writer" warns a new fraternity pledge that "Those toothbrushes they gave you weren't for you (sic) personal hygiene. The only new friends you will have will be 25 fellow slaves. Say goodbye to the cock walk and hello the (sic) elephant walk."
The paper also suggests a number of ways to get a date with a sorority girl, including putting a sock in your pocket.
It's more than just a little hypocritical for the greek community to complain that news coverage perpetuates bad stereotypes and then to publish something like this.
If such stereotype-perpetuating garbage were published in the Kansan, the Greek community would rise in armed revolt, beat down this newspaper's doors and hang its editorial staff from the nearest tree. Standards such as these should not be applied selectively.
The Greek community, ever so conscious about its image, should be outraged. Derek Locke, Interfraternity Council vice president for fraternity affairs, said IFC had nothing to do with the publication. A number of fraternities and sororites are so perturbed by the paper's content that they are asking to have their letters removed from the paper's front unless the format is changed, he said.
The Greek system can be an asset to the University community. Greeks earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities annually and perform countless hours of community service. But for a social entity so concerned with its image, the publication of The Column, at least in its current form, is a mistake.
Stan Diel for the editorial board
Despite Florida decision, women don't deserve rape
In the movie "The Accused," a rape victim was given justice. The movie showed that maybe society was moving away from placing the blame for a rape on the victim. Justice might be served more, and rapists would be treated like the criminals they are.
Perhaps the movie helped society take a step forward. We should be learning that the system should work for victims and not against them.
But a Florida jury's decision several weeks ago has erased the progress that society has taken years to achieve.
In Fort Lauderdale, a man was acquitted of raping and kidnapping a woman because of the way she was dressed. The jury said the clothes that the woman was wearing actually had invited the rape.
The woman's lace miniskirt has been shown on television and described in newspapers, all as if it matters an iota wat the woman was wearing.
If the woman had been wearing a cellophane jumpsuit, she would not have deserved to have been raped.
If the woman had recently taken up streaking, she would not have deserved to have been raped.
The Fort Lauderdale jury's decision said that a person could talk, walk or dress wrongly enough to merit being raped.
If a person leaves a car in a parking lot and another person can hot-wire it, does that justify the theft? Did the car owner deserve to have the car stolen?
The jury's decision helped perpetuate the myth that a rape is the reaction to something someone has done. The decision also sends the signal that a woman shouldn't try to do something about a rape because it might have been her fault. This decision assumes that men are animals and women are subservient tows.
Rape is a crime, but a jury said that it wasn't
The jury was uneposed.
Tiffany N. Harness for the editorial board
News staff
David Stewart...Editor
Ric Brack...Managing editor
Daniel Niemi...News editor
Candy Niilmann...Planning editor
Stan Diel...Editorial editor
Jennifer Corser...Campus editor
Elaine Sung...Sports editor
Laura Huser...Photo editor
Christina Winn-Winner...Arta/Features editor
Tom Eblen...General manager
Business staff
Linda Prokop ... Business manager
Debra Martin ... Local advertising sales director
Jerro Medford ... National/regional sales director
Jill Lowe ... Marketing director
Tami Rank ... Production manager
Carrie Blanklin ... Assistant production manager
Pearlent Townsend ... Co-op manager
Eric Hughes ... Creative director
Christi Dool ... Classified manager
Jeff Messey ... Tearsheet manager
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Math not part of real world
Man, just when I thought I had repressed mathematics from my mind forever, it all came back to me in a horrifying gush of delirium. I read a letter to the editor that complained about Math 002 and 101 at KU. I also was told that my brother, who is just starting junior high, has been yanked from his math course and placed in a special advanced honors course. I said, "Wait a second; we are blood, aren't we?"
I dropped 101 correspondence and began to work on a petition to the University pertaining to the mathematics requirement. I felt confident that they would see that I was only being damaged by this requirement. My petition was brilliant but recieved an answer of "no." Perhaps it sounded too desperate. Dependency never goes over well in these situations. Perhaps it was too true.
I dropped 101 and began to take 101 by correspondence. I thought I had done well on the first test but when I got it back, the computer told me I had some deep-rooted problems concerning mathematics.
Suddenly I'm reeling, reeling back in time, back to grade school, and I'm standing at the blackboard. My left hand was behind my back, and my right hand was gripping a little stump of chalk. Someone else was standing beside me. It was a race. The teacher barked, "You're so stupid!" The teacher teammates yelled encouragement. My sweat poured into that little piece of chalk as my head gears grinded and screamed.
Excessive amounts of homework and dislike later, I completed the minimum math requirements in high school. I was so happy when I got a "D" in 002 at KU. I missed every class, that was all I needed. I thought I was finished for life.
My French instructor explained that learning a foreign language is much like learning mathematics. That was enough for me, I changed my major to a bachelor of general studies in theater, and then realized I needed Logic and Math 101 to graduate. I took Logic but dropped it because I couldn't take it seriously. I finally passed by taking Classical Formal Logic, which seemed more credible to me but also represented the Western way of thinking, which I was beginning to find distasteful. I believe that Plato was my man, not Aristotle, and Dadai tendencies were making themselves apparent in my existence. Logic makes my thinking dull and ineffective. It's a dangerous subject to require because it cranks out uniformity.
I enrolled in 101 in summer school. The course demanded the mastery of two chapters a week. I was working two jobs and staring at math problems the rest of the time, and suddenly, my difficulty in the course had increased. There was no teacher. I guess the question was how the University can require a course that they don't even teach?
Mark Hansen
Guest columnist
Being a senior, I was running out of ways to leave town, or graduate. Last summer, I went home to live with my parents. I went to a math tutor twice a week. I had no job, and I had no social life. I enrolled in a four-day-a-week Abraber 101 course. I did the homework; and, most importantly, there was a teacher teaching the class. I got an A.
After getting that A, you might think I would go on to major in architecture or physics, but I didn't. I'm still a double major in English and film. This is where I belong. This is where I powerful. Some people might be spread out across the board but these days, we're raised to specialize, and I'm inclined to think there are others out there like me, struggling with one subject while losing time on those they could truly excel in.
My opinion on English and mathematics is extreme. Weak English equates weakened existence to the individual and an entire society crippled. Life itself is one of the only things more important than language. What kind of position can mathematics possibly hold next to English? None whatsoever. Mathematics can't even be seen in the lineup of items important in this existence of ours; that's how far back on the list it is. Words are formed in thought and exit our mouths. Language is inherent in the human body. Mathematics is a strange mutation of thought that, because of its unflexible nature, cannot be eliminated from contaminated minds. Mathematics cannot expand into a stagnant pool of processes and rules. These numbers, in a stagnant pool of processes and rules, don't seem very interesting to me. I want something that will allow me the power to express myself and speak of human experience. I don't have time to think about impotent numbers; I'm much too busy using English to think, speak and write of life and death.
I wonder how many failing math students will go out and drop their class after reading my distribe? It would be rather exciting to see them. First one, then several, they would come together at the enrollment center. But don't drop and die; instead, drop and fly; fly away from these weights that keep you from excelling. This is your chance to see that mathematics and logic are gravity itself, and without them, anything is possible.
Mark Hansen is a Prairie Village senior majoring in English and film.
U.S. closes doors on refugees
Nothing seems to disappoint certain U.S. diplomats like victory. As the Cold War wobbles to an end and the Communist empire erodes from the core out, Washington waxes wistful for the good old days when East was East West, and no hard decisions had to be made about refugee because the Communist regimes weren't letting any out.
Now, as tens of thousands come out legally and peacefully in any way they can, the West sounds worried. Wort it upset the stability of Eastern Europe if Communists lose more and more of their youngest and bravest?
The U.S. president can still say some fine words about the triumph of freedom in the world. Here is George Bush celebrating the great exodus of 1980 in a speech on German-American Day this year: "We are riveted, and I am moved, by the thousands of East Germans sacrificing all that they own, leaving everything behind to find their way to a West that offers the promise of freedom and opportunity."
Oh, for the good old days before the Iron Curtain rusted, when borders were secure, and nuclear confrontation was an immediate possibility. This is a curious fact, although we missed the worst and not the best of the past.
But even as George Bush was being riveted and moved, a spokesman for his State Department, Richard Boucher, was warning that the U.S. Embassy in East Berlin couldn't go on granting still more Germans sanctuary
"Our embassy is not in a position to accommodate large numbers of people who want to sit there until other governments do something." he said.
It is interesting that a country that carried off the Berlin Airlift when the danger of confrontation was far greater can't figure out a way to accommodate people trying to get out of their prison of a country. A military crisis Washington could handle; putting folks up at the Embassy is too much to expect. George Bush's fine words about freedom and opportunity really should carry a warning label: "For ceremonial purposes only."
In another triumph of bureaucracy, the administration served notice last month of a new and worse way to handle cases of Soviet Jews and Pentecostal trying to leave that country. Instead of processing their papers in Vienna or Rome, where the refugees can wait safely outside the Soviet Union, the State Department must now approve their papers in Moscow. Now that the Kremlin is aware of the danger, it seems to be closing ours. Washington may even change its policy of "refugee" and deny many Soviet immigrants admission just when they can finally get out.
The German Democratic Republic was never democratic or a republic, and now it becomes less German
Paul
Greenberg
Syndicated columnist
every day. The more Germans who cross the border into freedom, the greater the pressure to reform, which is the surest way to assure stability. For the first time, large-scale demonstrations have been permitted by the government. The regime's Stalinist leader, Erich Honecker, has been jettisoned in the wake of this exodus. That's how freedom to leave results in more freedom for those who stay.
When the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev paid his embarrassing visit to East Berlin in honor of 40 years of tyranny and oppression, he took umbage at the continuing demands that the Berlin Wall be dismantled. "We don't idealize the order that has settled on Europe," he said, defensively, "but the fact is that until now the US has not pursued its ensured peace on the continent." He sounded like the State Department's own Lawrence Eburjearbur.
The volatile division of the European continent after World War II threatened to cause confrontation after confrontation between East and West. Remember the recurring Berlin Crises? The revolts in Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia! Now the armed division of Europe is described by eb-so-serious scholars of foreign affairs as a guarantee of peace. Remarkable. Relieved that the peace of Europe has survived all the threats posed by repression, sophisticated diplomats loot back and scribe the survival to repression!
Again and again those of us who celebrate the return of freedom to half a continent are told to be more prudent and to remember the national interest in a stable Europe. It could be a passage out of one of Cicero's more pretentious orations in which he carefully balances the two interests of the state, its own welfare and its faithfulness to its pledged word. It was Augustine who would point out centuries later that in the more ideal institutions there is no conflict between welfare and faithfulness, the practical and the ideal. His refutation of Cicero might be remembered at this propitious time for freedom and for the United States. To encourage and welcome freedom for others is to promote our own welfare. In the case of this Republic, freedom is another name for the national interest.
> Paul Greenberg is the editorial page editor for the Pine Bluff (Ark.). Commercial.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Kansan cartoon criticized
Camp Uhneely is just plain not funny.
Mariann Skehan Leavenworth junior
Greeks can't get a break
Larry Washburn President, Phi Kappa Tau
In regard to Tiffany Harness' editorial concerning the ATO's removal of a racial song from their associate members manual, it would be damned if they did we do" and "damned if we don't." What else can we do?
Professor deserves better
We, the faculty of the department of public administration, are dismayed by your front-page article about Distinguished Professor George Frederickson, titled "KU professor wrestles with ghosts from the past." The impression left by the article, especially by the headline, is distorted. Where is the list of accomplishments Frederickson is credited with during his 10-year presidency? Where are the words from those in Washington who supported his presidency and would have carefully to remain in office for one year after we had indicated our interest in him joining the KU faculty? Why is the "approval of his trustees for everything he did" left to the tail-end of the story?
More important to the KU community are Frederickson's accomplishments as a scholar and national leader in the field of public administration. He is a former president of the American Society for Public Administration, which supports an international membership of some 15,000 professional administrators and academicians. In addition to his own research and writing, in the last two years he has organized and financed two major national conferences that would not have occurred without his initiative. Each has resulted in significant scholarly publications. He has organized a theory and research section in our national society and is soon to launch a major new scholarly journal.
Darwin Dalcoff
Professor
He supports and encourages the work of his colleagues and loses no opportunity to increase KU's reputation. He is unselfish with his great intellect and energy and is a tremendous asset to this Ulverham mission. Joseph selected earned our gratitude and respect and deserves better than the cavalier treatment presented in the Kansan.
Raymond Davis Associate professor
Steven Maynard-Moody Associate professor
John Nalbandian Associate professor
Barbara Romek
Chairman and associate professor
Flag just a piece of cloth
If I were called to fight for my country tomorrow, I would not fight for a three-colored, rectangular piece of nylon cloth. I would fight for the ideals and principles that this cloth represents. In and of itself, the flag has little intrinsic value. Only by ascribing values and beliefs to it does the flag take on shape and form.
It saddens me to hear about or see someone burn Old Blood. But it disturbs me even more when I hear that someone wants a right that our founding fathers found so into our system of government.
Sadly, the greatest injustice is being done to those who perished in war for our principles and ideals of freedom and not for a piece of fabric that could have just as easily wound up as a multicolored tablecloth.
Regardless of what the flag symbolizes, the true patriots of today are those individuals who would choose true freedom over symbolic flag waving. After the Senate's recent vote, I am sure our founding fathers are breathing a sigh of relief.
Jim Whittaker Boston senior