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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Wednesday, Nov. 20, 1985
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
A Common Sense choice
Two years of turmoil is enough. It's time for Student Senate to get to work.
Today and tomorrow, students will elect a new student body president, vice president and 58 student senators. The president and vice president largely set the agenda for the Senate during the year they serve.
Last fall, a more traditional student body president and vice president swept into office. They returned the gavel to Senate meetings.
Two years ago, the Senate bridled under the peaceful revolution of leaders who dubbed themselves the Costume Party.
After two years of extremes, the body charged with representing students needs to strike out on a course of compromise and concentration on issues rather than in-house squabbling.
Too often, the student body president and vice president—the Senate's leaders—have become embroiled in those controversies.
During the past two years, Senate work has been marred with fights over rules and personalities. The results were closed meetings, resignations and charges of stacking committees.
Two groups of candidates want the job. The Common Sense Coalition appears better suited to handle it.
David Epstein, Common Sense's presidential candidate, and Amy Brown, the vice presidential candidate, take a businesslike approach to Senate affairs. They seem less interested in politics and more interested in results.
The Senate needs a dose of that mindset to restore its credibility with students, many of whom see the Senate as merely a ring for junior politicos to square off on Wednesday nights.
The Senate needs to shake that reputation by proving over the next year that it can make students' lives better.
Epstein and Brown offer the best prospects for leading the Senate in this direction.
They are organized. Their platform rests on four principal issues:
3) Making campus parking cheaper and more accessible.
1) Starting a Night Ride bus route from bars to student living groups to curb drunken driving.
2) Publishing a guide to professors to help students choose classes.
The Chrysalis Coalition has proposed issues, but it prefers to leave its platform "flexible." The intent is noble, but consequently, Chrysalis' priorities appear blurred.
Common Sense has proposed more than ideas. Epstein and Brown have done their homework. They talk of executing their plans. They don't simply lay them on the table.
The Night Ride idea is a spin-off of a similar program at Iowa State University. Epstein and Brown have a successful prototype from which to work.
Marcos has "resigned" as the constitution requires, but he made his resignation effec
In short, they have delved into the mechanics of their ideas rather than merely dishing them up. Over the years, the Senate has suffered for lack of such planning.
They also have researched the best way to assemble a guide to professors, and found an attractive model at Arizona State University.
And they have studied student government on other campuses, searching for ways to improve the Senate.
If the Common Sense Coalition's campaign efforts indicate how its leaders intend to serve students, Student Senate may yet shake its bad habits and poor image.
A Senate under Epstein and Brown finally may get down to business.
Marcos' snap election
Reacting to internal strife and U.S. pressure, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos recently surprised everyone by calling for national elections on Jan. 17, 1986.
But whether this election would be free or fair is in doubt. The election itself is legal, but Marcos left only about two months for opponents to settle on a candidate and to finance and wage a campaign. The election commission is decidedly pro-Marcos, and many people think the military will intimidate voters unless steps are taken to prevent it.
The snap election, as it called — it is 16 months before the scheduled election — is a legal attempt to catch opponents off guard. But winning alone won't restore credibility to the Marcos regime. He must win in an election acknowledged by all to be free and fair.
tive only after the election — obviously a signal that he isn't putting all his eggs in the election basket.
Wisely, the Reagan administration has said that credible elections must have an impartial supervisory commission, independent civilian observers and no military pressure. The United States should stick by those conditions and insist on international observers as well.
The United States must have an ally in the Philippines, and so it must insist on a fairly elected government. Whoever wins this snap election probably will be in power when leases on two crucial U.S. air bases expire in 1991.
U. S. interests here coincide with the interests of genuine democracy in the Philippines. Marcos deserves no trust that he will offer a fair election. The United States, along with other nations, should make sure he does.
Rob Karwath
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Solo applauders can steal show
The second most common fear intrinsic in humans is the fear of being the only person applauding in an audience.
People attending concerts, plays or tapings of "Donahue" carefully avoid being the sole clapper. Even a proud mother at her child's first piano recital doesn't completely lose her self-consciousness when her child strikes the last sour chord of a long rehearsed number.
Being the only one laughing at a movie isn't too bad. Coughing loudly during a church service is not unbearable. But the darkness of a theater can't conceal your embarrassment when your hands are the only two smacking together.
It is not always appropriate to clap. The space between movements of a symphony or concerto, for example, is reserved for silence. Also, one should not be tempted to miscalculate the ending of a work.
We need to break this phobia. It's usually perfectly fine to suspend a performance to show your appreciation. But watch out, because "usually" happens to be a loaded word.
I participated in a performance of Handel's "Messiah" that was raped by the single clap of an anxious woman in the front row during the dramatic, final rest of the "Hallelujah Chorus." That's enough to make me take down my Christmas tree and
Rick Zaporowski Staff columnist
call off the whole thing.
Or, the indecision can result in half the audience taking a chance by clapping and the other half angrily shushing up the first half. This interaction is most uncomfortable to the performers and the audience.
holding in the burp.
Often, the audience can't be blamed for not clapping when it's appropriate. It can be very unclear when there is a set of musical numbers being performed consecutively that are related but not
'Being the only one laughing at a movie isn't too bad. Coughing loudly during a church service is not unbearable. But the darkness of a theater can't conceal your embarrassment when your hands are the only two smacking together.'
tor clos the orchestra's final notes, people's eyes shift around, trying to spot someone who looks as if he knows whether to clap or not.
attended a rehearsal could be planted in the audience and directed ahead of time to lead the clapping at the appropriate time. This way, nobody would have to take the dreadful role of being the first and only one clapping.
part of the same larger work
This indecision causes one of two things. It can result in silence. Performers and the audience are left with an empty feeling because there is a screaming absence of aural appreciation. The feeling is similar to drinking an entire Coke at once then
This problem could be solved if the person printing the program for a concert would insert a brief message saying whether applause should be held between musical numbers or whether it is permissible. Or the conductor could simply give a tiny nod of resolution when the performance was at a breaking point.
If nothing else, someone who has
Cultural programs can become tense if an audience is unsure about how much emotion it can release. At the more primitive events — say, a football game — we cheer at anything. We scream for touchdowns, interceptions, crushed opposing athletes, fallen referees and correct change from the vendor.
But once we get to the indoor performances, where we're expected to tuck in our shirts, things change. Can you imagine Peter Serkin waving a white towel at the audience after a rousing piano concerto in Carnegie Hall? It just doesn't happen.
However, the civility within a concert hall shouldn't restrain an audience from showing its approval of a good performance. Performers glady will hold a show for a minute to hear apause.
Applause is much appreciated after a solo musical number, an energetic dance or a slapstick exit by a bit character. Take care to recognize when it's OK to clap, and then do it. Performers love to hear an audience clapping.
Media shun criticizing the Soviets
It's that solo applauder who stings
Question 1: Is there a liberal bias in the media?
Question 2: If not, why do the media display such contempt toward the Reagan administration in its dealings with the Soviet Union?
Media criticism of the Soviet Union has been gravely lacking. Part of the reason is a lack of education among journalists.
Victor Goodpasture Staff columnist
Andrew Nagorski, Newsweek's bureau chief in Bonn, West Germany, says that foreign correspondents don't know much about the Soviet Union and that they rarely speak the language. He says most correspondents just repackage the propaganda handed to them by the Soviet government.
The media treat the Soviet government and its new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, as proponents of peace. The notion that "Hey, they're just like us," is media naivete at its worst.
Since 1917, the Soviet government has killed between 20 and 50 million of its own citizens in the name of communism. Of course, the exact figures never will be known because most of the killings occurred in mass executions and the bodies were left to rot. This type of butchery goes on, but again, largely unreported by our so-called free and independent press.
The 272 million Soviets are slaves, ruled by tyranny and oppression. About four million men, women and children are in forced labor camps, living in terror, not knowing whether they will live or die.
Who speaks for them? Where are the protests in front of the Soviet embassy?
What does it take to make people—and the media—realize that Soviet intentions of world domination are very real indeed? Ask an Afghan about Soviet peace.
The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and are involved in a genocide of the Afghan people. Women and children are bayoneted to death and entire villages are destroyed.
George Will recently wrote that Patrick David, a physician with Aide Medicale Internationale, told representatives of Helsinki watch that Soviet troops arrested 40 civilians.
"They tied them up and piled them like wood," David said. "Then they poured gasoline over them and burned them alive."
Why doesn't this make front-page news?
Meanwhile, Soviet involvement in Africa and Central America is growing rapidly.
In Ethiopia, millions of people are starving to death — largely because the Soviet-backed Marxist government there is blocking food
shipments to the masses.
The Ethiopian regime will let the people starve, because some of them may be freedom fighters who oppose the regime. The media conveniently fail to mention this.
The media act exactly the same way in Central America. They refuse to acknowledge that Nicaragua is a communist dictatorship controlled by the Soviet Union.
They condemn the U.S.-backed freedom fighters in Nicaragua but are totally silent about communist terrorists in El Salvador. Is this fair and unbiased journalism? Certainly not. Again, it's all part of the Soviet benignancy. U.S. malevolence mentality.
From all of this one can conclude that the world isn't always as the media report it.
to practice unbiased, truthful, fair and accurate journalism. Is that too much to ask?
Conservatives aren't asking for much. All they want is for the media
The American public has become more conservative, yet the media remain decisively liberal on every issue. The media watch the government, but who watches the media?
Conservatives want no special favors. However, they would like the editorial page to stay off page one.
When will the media respond to and act upon the criticism they receive? The public must have faith that the powers that be listen to them. If the public loses faith in the accuracy and fairness of the media, this will translate into mistrust for the government itself.
One only has to go to the Soviet Union to learn this.
After eight vodkas. . .
Royko seeks 'the right stuff' for space
The reporter was calling long-distance and said he was taking a survey of journalists.
"Are you going to apply to be one of the newsmen to go on a space flight?"
Go on a what?
"A space flight. They are going to be making applications available in a few weeks. And I'm surveying journalists in different parts of the country to see whether they are going to apply."
You mean getting into a rocket and going to outer space?
"Yes. The newsmen are going to be selected from five regions of the country."
Well, I haven't given it much thought. But as long as you mention it, I'll check my schedule. If the space flight doesn't conflict with a Cubs-Mets series, I'm sure I'll apply
Not at all, I said, concluding the interview.
"Traveling through space wouldn't be a problem for you?"
Later, I mentioned the call to someone I've worked with for many years. He laughed and said, "Why did you lie to him?"
"But you don't fly. You have a phobia about flying. You've written about it many times."
That's not entirely true. I flew from
Washington, D.C., to Chicago as recently as 1976.
"Sure, after somebody took you to the National Press Club, fed you 10 martins and poured you on the plane."
An exaggeration. It was only eight.
And they weren't martins. Just plain vodka on the rocks, with a lemon twist for my sunshine vitamins.
"Whatever. But that's the only time I've known you to fly."
Also untrue. In 1959 I rode a helicopter to cover a story. In my youth, I rode the Bobs in Riverview Amusement Park six straight times without getting off. And I recently went to the $5th floor of the Hancock Building for lunch.
Bullying or violence:
"That doesn't exactly make you
Chuck Yeager. C'mon, you're
deathly afraid of flying."
Another misconception. I have never been afraid of flying. Flying, is perfectly safe. It's the thought of crashing that has restricted my air time.
It's obvious. It doesn't happen often, but airplanes do occasionally run into mountains, bridges, power lines or mrs runways and land in rivers, swamps, harbors or on somebody's roof.
"I don't see the distinction."
Mike Royko Chicago Tribune
And though I accept that we all have to go sometime, I've always
'If the space flight doesn't conflict with a Cubs-Mets series, I'm sure I'll apply.'
"Yes, but you're going so far up,
beyond gravity."
"But space shuttles take off and land, too."
looked ahead to passing on quietly and peacefully, in my bed, surrounded by my children and grandchildren who dab their eyes and look mournful in hopes that I left them a little something in my will.
Ah, but they go straight up. Whoops and they're on their way. And they land in remote wastelands where the runways are about 90 miles long and there's nothing to hit but a few lizards.
Exactly. And what's out there to
hit? No power lines. No mountains.
No dumb birds to fly into the whatchaamcallit. No tiny planes getting in your way like a bunch of gnats. No lightning, no storms, no gusts of wind.
And if a rivet falls off, it just floats there. The mechanic will just drift out, pluck it from the pothining and screw it back on. As far as I can tell, the only thing to worry about up there might be a strange spaceship carrying alien creatures who look like calamari.
"But the question is, why would you want to do it?"
Wanderlust, Curiosity. The desire to see what few others have ever seen. I've been to the Wisconsin Dells. I've been to the Fontainbleau in Miami Beach. So what's left?
"I believe you're serious."
You can bet on it. And when the applications become available, mine will be one of the first they'll receive.
"But are you sure that when the time comes to put on the spacesuit and actually climb aboard the spaceship, you will really have 'the right stuff?'
The question is whether the people running the operation will have the right stuff.
"What do you mean?"
About eight fast ones on the rocks,
with a twist of lemon.