4
Friday, September 7; 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Helsinki summit
Superpowers meeting as allies is promising sign
P resident Bush will meet with Mikhail Gorbachev in Helsinki on Sunday to
That alone will be a diplomatic feat in and of itself
provide what officials describe as a highly visible show of superpower solidarity. The muscle-flexing is meant for Saddam Hussein, but the entire world will be watching. This is the first time since World War II that the two powers will be sitting on the same side of the table in an international military conflict.
But the summit has additional significance. This summit was planned quickly and is to be flexible in structure. The format encourages open discussion and steps away from the press-hyped, smile-pretty-for-the-camera summits of the past.
Recent summits have been shallow in substance and thick with idle conversation.
This time around the talk is a little more refreshing. We hope this summit will lead to more like it.
"A new foundation for world order is being built and the spadework begins in Helsinki," presidential spokesperson Marlin Fitzwater said Tuesday.
His statement is a far cry from Ronald Reagan's rhetoric of a few years past about an "Evil Empire" on the other side of the world. His new optimism is the product of a new trus
This weekend's summit is another small step down a path that hopefully will lead to a peaceful end of the Gulf crisis. That path should not end with the Gulf crisis, but continue toward the resolution of other conflicts.
The new format, conceived at the Malta summit, allows for the discussion of other current topics. The Conventional Forces in Europe pacf, Soviet economic reforms, and hot spots such as Cambodia and Afghanistan all have notable topics, along with the main topic of Iraq.
No matter what comes of the summit, the fact that the leaders of two nations, who historically have been archemenies, can sit in a quasi-informal setting and discuss world problems is encouraging. It gives more hope to the idea that the Gulf crisis, and others like it, can be settled peacefully.
Stephen Kline for the editorial board
A uniform decision
Tradition, not band, should fall in heat wave
A midst the sweltering heat at Saturday's football game, the University of Kansas Band marched on the field and fell in the stands.
Three KU Band members were taken to Three Rivers Memorial Hospital and treated for head, exsuffusion.
Although the band is an integral part of KU Football and a long-standing tradition, their wool uniforms are unnecessary and proved to
be harmful Saturday.
Tom Stidham, assistant director of bands, said alternative uniforms, including shorts, were being considered for relief on steamy days.
We are relieved that the band department recognizes that sometimes proud tradition must give way to Mother Nature.
Christine Reinolds for the editorial board
Fighting in S. Africa
Faction differences shouldn't surprise observers
More than three weeks of factional fighting in South Africa has left more than four hundred Blacks dead. The fightin has "prompted suggestions by political commentators that efforts to mold a new political order in South Africa are imperiled," according to an article in last week's New York Times.
The conflicts, which have been going on for years, have even led the South African government to plea for peace.
How ironic. The South African government, which represents a fraction of the population and disallows the majority to even vote, has participated in organized violence against the Blacks for years. And now it is concerned about Blacks killing each other.
How naive for the rest of the world to believe that a transition of power would be trouble-free.
Because Blacks in South Africa share a common physical feature — their skin is darker than the ruling party's — does not mean Black South Africans share political ideology. The Blacks in South Africa come from a variety of cultural groups. The Zulus, Mambas, which are among the feuding groups, are representatives from just two of those groups.
As evidenced by the recent bloodshed and the loss of lives since the mid-1980s (thousands
have died in factional fighting since then), some of the issues being addressed are worth fighting for, and perhaps worthy dying for.
But some claim that the fighting has been fueled by the White South African government Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu agrees with this view.
Can the violence be a government ploy aimed at breaking apart the power of Blacks in South Africa? Or is it really self-inflicted injury originating in cultural differences between the Black peoples? The world may never know.
What the world does know is that apartheid is an evil system that breeds more evil and violence. Such a system leaves room to contend with the incidents of brutality were state-sponsored.
Whatever may be the motivating factor in the current wave of violence in South Africa, the world community should hold out for a one-person, one-vote democracy in South Africa. We should hope for the unification of the Blacks there. But we should be sensitive to the fact that all Black South Africans do not think alike, nor do they necessarily share a common ideology about apartheid and the balance of power.
Tiffany Harness for the editorial board
Editors
News. Julie Mettenburg
Editorial. Mary Neubauer
Planning. Pam Solliner
Campus. Holly Lawton
Sports. Brent Maycock
Photo. Andrew Morrison
Features. Smithy
Rape jokes stupid, thoughtless
K-State officials have set precedent for other universities by offering student reservists and guardsmen
we was taking one of those infamous eight-minute rides in one of the McCollien elevators when in stepback group of seven guys and two girls.
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
It seemed like any of the other sublences on campus, and I expected the conversation to revolve around the availability of alcohol consumption, but it didn't.
Campus sales mgr...Cristo Dool
Regional sales mgr..Jackie Schmalzmier
National sales mgr...David Price
Co-op sales mgr...Deborah Salzer
Production mgr...Missy Meller
Production assistant...Julie Aikland
Marketing director...Audra Langford
Creative director...Gail Einbinder
It's obvious that Kansas State University officials haven't been doing a lot of fishing and golfing in Kennebunkport, Maine, lately.
Editors
KJERSTIN GABRIELSON Managing editor
JEANNE HINES
One of the girls noticed there were only two girls on the elevator and apparently feeling the silence too deep that tried to break the ice with a bake.
called to active duty the option of receiving a full refund of their tuition and fees for the fall semester, or an incomplete. Not long after K-State officials made the decision, the Board of Regents requested that all Regents schools make the same offer.
thinking should have stopped when the appendix was still functional and the dating process entailed hitting a cawkerman over the head with a club and dragging her into a cave. It was tolerated or excused as a bad joke.
K-State sets precedent
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas will not be required to do this.
I am soldel ashamed by another person's words or actions, feeling that if I didn't say or do it, why should I be embarrassed? But this guy made me ashamed that some people still see women as objects to be conquered and bragged about instead of as equals to be loved and respected. I wish that stupidity was painful, or at least that perhaps the girl would know what is happening with him, really was. Maybe somehow he'll realize that he has sisters or cousins or girlfriends or friends or hated enemies that should never be subjected to such crimes, and that he really wasn't funny.
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
If not violence, I at least wanted to say something nasty, or make it abundantly clear that such remarks were neither funny, nor appreciated. It was likely especially inappropriate in an academic setting like the University of Kansas
They laughed. Perhaps it was an inside joke, but I failed to see, nor do I now see, any humour in the subject of rape. There was a split second when my animal instinct, similar to the one in him that made him utter such an assine comment, encouraged me to move. My instinct moved more. Move my instinct even gave me out — I could rationalise my actions by telling the jury that my victim
Michael Paul is a Manhattan sophomore majoring in journalism and political science.
MARGARET TOWNSEND Business manager
MINDY MORRIS Retail sales manager
From the Kansas State Collegian.
Michael Paul
"Has anyone ever heard of gang rape?"
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
Other Voices
- **many** reason the right to object or add letters,勾款 columns and cartoons. They can be the opinion of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kansan. Editorialists ar
MINDY MORRIS
DEREK SCHMIDT
Editor
wore provocative clothing,leading me to commit my crime.
I was outnumbered by the seven 'roid monsters, and the girls might not have understood my butting into their conversation, so at 9-1 odds, I played it safe, keeping silent until now.
Staff columnist
Because men seldom are raped, my understanding of its trauma is limited. But I can't understand how that could happen. My dogs fife rape jokes funny. That kind of
People can be afraid of the tiniest creatures
KANSAN STAFF
I don't know what it is about those beastly little creatures that scares me so much. All I know is that when I see one, I quickly and loudly take refuge in a safe place, like the other side of the state.
I am a rational being. I manage to remain calm most of the time. It takes something pretty big to throw me way out of killer. Or something pretty small with eight hairy legs and beady little eyes.
Although I have never been clinically diagnosed, I assume I suffer from arachnophobia. When I spy one of those tucky little creatures, I feel like all the air is being sucked from my lungs, and the panic level reaches maximum overload and spills out through my throat in the form of a very loud "UAYUGGHAH!!!" It takes me a few moments to recover after the initial shock of the first sighting.
Now, I may have on those phobia-goggles, but I know that I am not losing contact with reality. I KNOW that spider, no matter how small he is, has come for me, and plans to sink his jaws into my skin, causing me to bleed profusely until I fall into convulsions and die. This is reality.
We'll discuss how to get rid of them.
I've looked into ways of overcoming my phobia. One method often used is called behavioral therapy. During that, the patient is gradually exposed to the object or situation that causes stress. The very thought gives me chills. A friend of mine suggested I try group therapy to overcome my fear of the harry little things. Maybe that's what we need. We've never known me. But as self-appointed group leader I can tell you we won't discuss how to make the things our friends
My phobia does not limit my life. I don't avoid spiders. Of course, I don't go searching for them either. I just kill them, or have other people do it for me. This may seem incompatible and selfish, and it is out of character for me to go around squishing things, but, hey, if spiders stay out of my way, they'll be fine.
Some people try to present the spider's point-of-view in a similar situation. I still don't feel for them. They don't
I have often wondered why I am so scared and repulsed by such a relatively small creature. I wasn't bitten by one as a child, and I never fell into a vat of spiders or had them crawl all over me. And I doubt seriously that it's a Freudian thing. I did read a lot about that Little Miss Hammond. Maybe that had something to do with it. Hmmm
Kerry Anderson is a Topeka sophomore majoring in education.
like me any more than I like them. I guess disgust is a mutual force for us. I am just bigger.
Staff columnist
Kerry Anderson
LETTERS to the EDITOR
The military draft is an inherently anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian
Draft insures inequality
In an editorial last week, Kjerstin Gabrielson and Jill Harrington said they believed that including women in a renewed military draft would be right for women. Unfortunately, this is a mistaken and misleading belief.
mechanism that exploits and oppresses poor people and minorities. During the Vietnam War, rich kids vacationed on country club-style college campuses while poor kids were killed in Vietnam. Nothing would change with a new round of military call-ups. The military draft is simply a man-made threat that underlies enough to not be able to buy their way out of a war. Equality for women under slavery is a meaningless form of equality.
Gabrielson and Harrington say most women (and men) do not want to go to war. If there is not public support for a war, it is a violation of
our basic democratic rights to use coercion through the draft to gain that support. Rather than forcing people to fight, we should develop more humane alternatives for solving conflicts.
Forcing women to register for the draft will only result in more inequality for both men and women. Women struggling for true equality should fight to end all exploitation and oppression. A good place to begin is to work diligently for an end to the registring and drafting of anyone.
Marc Becker Lawrence graduate student
Protest for a reason
Racial discrimination or discrimination of any kind should never be tolerated at the University of Kansas. I also hold many of the same beliefs, but I have addressed in the past. However, the protesting students who burned the Kansans lost a lot of credibility in my eyes. I am sure there has to be more important issues to be addressed than a lower case "b" in my vocabulary to protest, protest for a reason, not just for the sake of holding a protest.
Steve Dodge St. Louis senior
Three Imaginary Girls
By Tom Avery