Opinion
page 4 University Daily Kansan, February 15, 1982
Quest for exclusives
Funny, announcements of new athletic directors seem to bring out the worst in local newspapers.
Thursday, the name of Jim Lessig—the man who would be athletic director—was one of the best-kept secrets in town.
All night, reporters telephoned the eight selection committee members, trying to worm Lessig's name out of them. Of course, the University planned to announce his name at a Friday morning press conference. But most wanted the name before then: they wanted an exclusive.
The quest for the exclusive sometimes makes newspaniers do strange things.
One newspaper compiled an exclusive list of "top contenders" for the job. Another printed the hot scoop that Chancellor Gene A. Budig unilaterally chose Lessig as athletic director the same day Bob Marcum left the job.
And a University newspaper, which shall remain a newsent, sent two reporters to the
Lawrence Country Club to see if the new athletic director was dining there. He wasn't. But the reporters bought themselves a couple of shrimp dinners. (With their own money.)
As it turned out, at least one insider disclosed Lessig's name, and 13 hours before the Friday press conference, the story was all over local radio and television newscasts.
But it's funny, with all the list compiling and telephone calling, most reporters forgot to do one thing—call Lessig. The new athletic director spent a quiet Thursday night in his hotel room.
After years in coaching and administration, Lessig probably has had contact with the press, so we hope he won't be too alarmed by our Thursday night shenanigans.
He should know by now that to make the press do funny things, all it takes is a full moon-or a well-secret secret.
Hopeful find happiness bv striking compromise
It may be interpreted as a grim or hopeful comment on the human potential for happiness, or a pessimistic one.
"Most people are about as happy as they make in their minds to be."
Now, what does this observation on human nature, scrawled on the wall of a woman's work
For example, it could be the smug pronouncement of someone who looks disapprovingly at the poor, the sick and the lonely. He considers himself a kind person, regardless as he is, they just aren't trying hard enough.
This attitude may come from a person who had a hard and bitter struggle to get where he is.
today. His own problems left him with no sympathy to spare. He has made a good life for himself, one he is happy with, and he sees no reason why the rest of the world can't do the work.
LISA BOLTON
This attitude may also belong to the person who expects everyone else to be as contented as he, never mind that he has always had the sort of life in which every variable subject to human control was set for satisfaction. He has all the happiness money can buy. Never having known material need—or even want—this person would be happier than anyone else, and rest the rest of the world as easily as it came to him.
These two people represent the grim view of the pursuit of happiness. Each is isolated in his struggle either to keep the hard-won material beyond their reach or to reenter the reproachful eyes of those without such
comforts. Both like to think that those forever struggling can simply make up their minds to be quiet.
The happiness of the grim view is ostentatious and tinged with guilt. The person doggedly pursuing it cannot look down; he must concentrate on keeping his foothold on the climb to the ultimate goal: happiness. He has made up his mind that he expects and that he expects everyone else to do the same.
A more hopeful interpretation of this writing on the wall is the one offered by those who know they'll never really have everything they want, that they don't know what's important what they do have – in spite of what they don't.
They don't have to close their eyes to the people around them and race toward happiness because they know they can't program the events of their lives exactly as they might want. The unavoidable element of chance interferes whether it be misfortune or lucky opportunity.
At a more fundamental level is the physically handicapped person whose striving for accomplishment is restrained by only the physical limits that his handicap imposes.
The hopeful interpretation of this line of graffiti is that people make up their minds to be happy, whatever their lives may offer or hurt at them. They make the best of it.
There comes a point—different in time and degree for each person—at which growth must extend outward rather than upward. It is at that point that a person makes up his mind to stop grasping for what he will never have and to be happy with what he does have, whether it is a respectable law degree, a good husband or a sound mind.
Deciding to be happy means reaching a compromise between perfection and reality, yet doing so demands unfinishing with one's hand. But the hopeful view is that most people can do it.
Letters to the Editor
Mourners lament death of old enrollment
To the Editor:
Faculty, students, staff, lend me your e rs.
We come to bury Allen Fitz Flock Enrollment not to praise it.
The evil that ancient systems do lives on after them:
The good is often interred in their ruins.
So let it be with the Alien system.
The noble administration hath told you it was outdated.
`A wws so, it was I g thevoud truit,
and grievously hath the system answer d'it.`
Wait, let me look at the word `grieviously`. It's a bit blurry but looks like it.
Okay, I'm ready to transcribe.
`A wws so, it was I g thevoud truit,
and grievously hath the system answer d'it.`
Here, under leave of Budig and the rest For Budig is an honorable man;
So Buding is an honorable man;
Are they all, all honorable men,
Come we to speak in the old system's funeral.
Sometimes we received all good cards, faithful
But the press says uncomputerized is bad. And the press is an honorable body.
together. Whose student fees did the general coffins fill? Does this to the press seem bad?
When the classes were filled, assistants have went:
We speak not to disapprove what the University spoke.
Computers are made of sterner stuff.
Continue here instead of further salut:
The you administration says it was warranted.
You are an incredible body. You all did see that during enrollment
we thrice presented ourselves wasted.
Which we'd three enjoy. Was this bad?
They were happy. Was was, bad, and, sure,
they are honorable people.
to speak what we do know.
But here we are to speak what we do know.
You all have enjoyed it at least once, even if you
have not.
What causes withhold you then, to mourn for it?
O judgment! Thou art fled to bristle beasts,
And man have lost their reason. Bear with us;
Our hearts are in the coffin there with the old
And we must pause till it come back to us.
Phil Scott,
Paola junior, and
Engel Pengalan.
Columbia, Mo., junio
Accurate reflection
To the Editor:
In recent months, the University Daily Kansan has printed a succession of features, articles and editorials on racism. Hopefully, the KU community will not let this issue die. No one is claiming that segregation does not exist at KU, but whites argue that many of our major institutions remain segregated by choice, not by special attempts to exclude blacks.
But the fact is, the KU residence halls and Greek system are merely a reflection of American society—racist. More than 100 years after the Civil War, this country remains unable to integrate blacks into the mainstream of national life.
Only a little more than a decade ago, civil rights marchers were involved in a major push to change this situation. Tragically, the movement has stalled and lost its momentum.
Deprogramming bill poses threat to freedom of religion
The groundwork is being laid in Topeka for a cull hunt.
And like the witch hunts of 17th century Salem, Mass, this one is based on fear and ignorance and has the potential to threaten everyone's freedom.
The Kansas House Judiciary Committee last Tuesday approved a bill that would allow parents to gain custody of their adult children and officers of cults and have them deprenured.
This bill is almost identical to the one in
The bill, if passed, would enable parents to petition a court to assign a temporary guardian—a deprogrammer—if it can be reached. Offspring are under the influence of a cult.
DAN TORCHIA
New York that was vetuted twice by Gov. William G. McCain in unconstitutional threats to religious freedom.
Under the bill, if the guardianship is granted, a person can be held for 45 days, and an additional 30 days can be granted. This is the deprogramming stage. Deprogramming techniques use many of the same techniques used by cults—sleep deprivation, confinement to a specific place and intense questioning of previous values.
A person has to undergo an abrupt and drastic alteration of basic values, physical changes like weight change or cessation of exercise, or a transitional or exceptional capability to be assigned to a guardian.
This bill would create more problems than it would solve. Using the word "cult" would cause immediate constitutional problems, so the authors of the bill avoided the word when they drafted it. But the vagueness still creates constitutional problems.
The changes have to be caused by a "systematic course of coercive persuasion"—a cult. According to the bill, cults use devices like manipulation of the environment, isolation from family and friends, inadequate care, deprivation and unreasonably long work hours.
How is a cult determined? Black gospel churches are sometimes labeled cults by their religious practices.
memberships. But they aren't cults in the common definition. The Roman Catholic Church, as a requirement for its religious orders, requires that people give up their possessions to the church. This has been an issue in the United States since the years, and no one considers it as cult behavior.
"I experienced inadequate diet, I experienced unreasonably long hours, I experienced inadequate medical care—all in support for Eugene McCarthy up in New Hampshire," he said, alluding to the 1968 presidential campaign.
Mark Alan Siegel, a New York assemblyman, aptly demonstrated the problem of defining cults during last year's debate on the New York bill.
Cults are a problem, and especially so on a college campus. Idealism runs high, and many students are exposed to ideas and subjects vastly different from ones they are used to.
No one is going to be programmed for working long hours on a campaign. But Siegel says, “I can’t stop.”
Values and lifestyles that are unchallenged for almost 20 years are often questioned. Most people modify their basic values without any help from cults.
At present, the civil rights movement is in full-scale retreat.
Testimony on the bill heard Feb. 4 showed that college students are often cultized' targets. Court officials said.
"Last spring, I got involved with a group at Kansas State called Maranatha," said Dee Tillman, a senior at KSU. "My family relations went downhill, my academic achievements slipped. I did not date and I was going to the elders of the group pick my band."
"I was functioning not as an individual, but as a protege of the organization."
Other testimony looked at groups commonly thought of as cults, including the Unification Church and the Hare Krishnas. Those testifying told of schemes to take money from people and of stealing gas and food as they traveled.
Cults seem threatening because of their unusual recruiting methods and the appearance of their members. Preaching on the basis of having shaved heads is unusual and threatening.
But cults' supposed threat to society is exaggerated. About 20 million people belong to cults, a significant number, but the groups don't have any cohesive power.
Roland Enroth, professor of sociology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., said in Christianity Today magazine that there was a great deal of turnover in cults.
"People nut from group to group," he said. Likewise, Irving Zarsky of the University of Chicago, in Intellect magazine, questioned the continuity of cult membership.
"Cult participation is often an occasional one-shot experience, rather than a conference."
One of the oldest tensions in the United States has been religious tolerance. A bill that allows cut members to be taken against their will is a first step, but threatens everyone's religious freedom.
We need to take a long-term view in dealing with cults. If we can find a constitutional, rational way to get people out, then we should use it. But this bill saps of emotionalism.
It is not up to the Kansas Legislature to decide what a religion is, or which ones are valid. Freedom of religion encompasses a variety of beliefs and ideas or groups that seem dubious to some.
Only a month ago, the Reagan administration granted tax-exempt status to two private southern colleges that openly discriminate against blacks. The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by segregationist Sten Sromtrud, R-S.C., is squabbling over extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Only last week, General William Smith was on Capitol Hill explaining why he wasn't about the law. Internationally, we are improving relations with South Africa, a country quarantined by the world community for the past 15 years because of its apartheid policy.
Recently, David Canyad and Patricia Crocker have written to the Kansan in rebuttal to articles on racial discrimination in Greek houses and GSP-Corbin.
These letters reflect the racism engrained in our national character. Canady claims that whites wish to "achieve their personal potential by matching with others of similar background."
This merely implies that all whites come from upper- or middle-class families, while all blacks come from lower- or middle-class families.
From the sorority viewpoint, KU unfortunately is one of only a handful of universities in the nation to conduct formal rush in the middle of the school year. And with the way the Panhellenic Association caters to Corbin, it is no wonder that the hall is "100 percent white Anglo-Saxon." It's admittedly hard for a black girl to go through everything involved in rush knowing that most of the sororites on campus have never pieded a black member.
At KU, it is indeed hard to prove the intent to discriminate against blacks in Greek houses and GSP-Coribin. But the effects are glaringly obvious. Something should be done.
During the big push for civil rights laws in the 1960s, the major debate focused on whether Justice Department enforcers had to prove the illegitimate, or merely the effects of discrimination.
Black fraternites and sororites are themselves racist. But their formation is understandable in light of an existing system that shuns them.
Racism in America is a national disgrace. True, most of us at KU can't do much about the national situation. But there is a lot we can do right here. The necessary steps to end racism at KU should be undertaken seriously regardless of how unpopular they will be at first.
Alun Jikla.
The University Daily
Salina sophomore
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