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Thursdav. November 6: 1986 / University Daily Kansan
Opinions
While the students sleep
Yawn
Most likely, that's most students' reactions to the coming Student Senate elections. This year's contest, between the Cheers and Initiative coalitions, is so low-key that it may even put some Senate junkies to sleep.
But the reasons for apathy are deeper.
Undoubtedly, the next shorter-than-usual term, mandated when the Senate decided to move its elections to April, has contributed to the lack of excitement.
First, an underlying difference in philosophy between the two coalitions does not seem to exist. Their proposals are like generic pop music: the songs could come from any record.
Secondly, stale ideas outnumber fresh ones.
Both sets of candidates come from inside of a traditional Senate and have talked as if they share its world view.
On the surface, the most exciting news of the campaign is that Cheers' candidates, if
But they haven't said how the program would work, and the idea of Senate becoming a bank is somewhat frightening — it sometimes can't keep its own meetings in order. Also, the coalition has not said how their plan would avoid duplicating the work of the Kansas University Endowment Association.
elected, would try to start a Senate-sponsored, no-interest, short-term loan program.
Otherwise, in debates, the coalitions' candidates have spent much time dwelling on hackneyed themes: experience, campus safety and lack of communication in Senate.
If they are to get students interested in the elections, the coalitions will have to find something new to bring the students. If they think differences in philosophy between the coalitions exist, they must articulate them better.
If they do neither of these things, few students will bother to show up at the polls Nov. 19 and 20.
Sexually speaking
Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that casual sex may be hazardous to your health.
It probably won't be printed on any packages or required by federal law, but C. Everett Koop's recent warning against the danger of AIDS is one of the most out-spoken and important documents to ever come from his office.
His advice is strong and simple: AIDS is out there, you need to know about it and you need to know how to avoid contracting this deadly disease.
In addition, children should receive information about the disease often and early, and heterosexual grown-ups should not feel safe just because they are not in the highest risk group.
More than 26,000 cases of AIDS have been recorded in the United States, 15,000 of which have resulted in death.
Koop's report estimates that AIDS fatalities may grow to 179,000 within five years.
Those are not the kind of figures that can be ignored just because sexual practices are difficult to talk about. And homosexuals and bisexuals are not the only people who need be concerned. More than 1,000 of those reported cases are attributed to heterosexual transmission and the number grows every day.
He didn't advocate celibacy or even monogamy, but Koop said people need to ask the tough questions and be cautious. No matter how awkward the bedroom conversations get.
The underlying message in all of this is the importance of communication and information. Whether the fourth-grader or sex partner is asking the questions, the answers ought to be clear and available.
Death to save face
"Tragic, unconscionable, immoral." Those are the words a former official of the Federal Aviation Administration used to describe the agency's suppression of studies indicating that a midair collision avoidance system was near completion 11 years ago.
And since the time the system could have been in operation, from Jan. 1, 1976, to
The system, developed by Honeywell Inc. was rejected in late 1975 in favor of a series of FAA projects, several former administration officials were reported as saying in the Wichita Eagle-Beacon. They said the cover-up was to protect the size and authority of the FAA. The administration has downplayed the shortcomings of its own system and distorted reports about the superior performance of the Honeywell system.
If the lives of the people the administration is supposed to protect are not it's major priority, then it is in serious and immediate need of a reevaluation of those priorities. In their quest for the almighty dollar, the administration has looked the other way while lives have been needlessly lost.
"It involves life and death," said Allan Landolt, a former assistant administrator of the FAA's office of General Aviation and one of the top agency officials familiar with deliberations about Honeywell's system. "You can twist it all around and b.s. all you want about it, but people have died who didn't need to die."
Aug. 31, 1986, 288 midair collisions have taken the lives of 718 people. Many of those people could have been saved by a more accurate tracking system.
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This is the third year I've been coaching the KU Men's Soccer Club. I suppose there are plenty of worse things I could have been doing with my spare time, like having a social life, or watching mindless episodes of "Vice" or changing Hobie's
All you wanted to know about soccer
Mimi's vice or charm
kitty litter a little more often.
Glenn M.
Shirtliffe
Instead, I chose to devote myself to athletics and have watched talented young Jayhawks chase balls around most of the soccer pitches in the greater Midwest.
I've seen players battle heatstroke when the thermometer broke the century mark; I've seen players defy frostbite in raging blizzards; I've seen world-class goals scored by some real wizards and I've seen a few wile goals conceded by some real wusses.
Soccer is a very interesting sport,
really, I realized that last night when
I got to thinking about things, like
why Hobie split, and which so few fans
come to our games. Well, I think I've
found a few answers. The reason we
get so few fans out to our games is
because most students don't know
much about soccer.
One thing I've noticed, though, as I've witnessed these feats, is that I tend to be the only one there bearing witness. Spectators at KU soccer games are about as rare as liberals on the Supreme Court, or positive ads in a Missouri Senate race. And that's too bad.
So, as a public service to the thousands of potential KU soccer fans out there, I submit that this is
everything you could ever possibly want to know about soccer, presented in a clear and concise question-and-answer format
What is the difference between what the rest of the world calls football and what Americans call football?
In American football, the players wear padding and run into each other. In rest-of-the-world football, the players wear no padding, and the spectators run into each other.
Because much of the world is depicted in the benefits of American civilization.
Why is soccer called football in much of the world?
A soccer match usually consists of two 40-minute halves, plus however much time the referee decides to add on, unless the referee abandons the game due to some natural disaster, insurrection or civil war, all of which are quite common at soccer matches.
How long does a soccer match last?
Is soccer a dangerous game?
It depends on whether you're a player or a spectator. Unlike American football, the safest place to play is a soccer match is ON the field of play.
How many players are on a soccer team?
There are usually 11 players on each team — the goalkeeper and the rest of the team. Players may be substituted with the referee's permission, except when the referee gives a player a card for attempting to maim or mutilate another player.
If the referee gives a player a yellow card, the player can still play. If the player gets another yellow card he is ejected from the game. Getting one red card is the same as getting two yellow cards at the same time. (Some players collect sets of these cards and try to trade them in on rugby contracts.)
Can soccer players use their hands?
Not really. Only the goalkeeper can use his hands, and then he can only use them in his penalty area — which is absurdly named, because the goalkeeper gets the advantage of using his hands in this area.
How well have other players adjusted to not using their hands?
Fairly well, although doing high fives with one's feet after scoring a goal does have its drawbacks. Fortunately, this need does not arise too often. Unfortunately, a need that does arise all too often is that of fences. Fences are built in patches, which proves rather difficult when one can't use one's hands.
Why do soccer players jump all over each other after they score a goal?
To scratch those embarrassing tches.
How are goals scored in soccer?
Well, during the Missile Crisis it alerted the Pentagon that a great many Russian troops were stationed in Cuba. U.S. spy planes saw lots of soccer fields being built in Cuba, which was kind of strange because Cubans play baseball, not soccer.
Gee, I didn't know soccer was so important to world affairs.
Is soccer boring?
I think it all has to do with antihazing regulations. Some of these poor dudes have never been properly hazed by their house-brothers, so soccer practice fulfills their basic primal need for ritual. For a modest fee these wanton greeks can come to practice and be legally taunted, ridiculed and made to do numerous feats of physical absurdity. They love it!
American football players are not renowned for their academic aptitude. Are soccer players lacking in this regard as well?
It depends. Compared to watching cheese mold, no. Compared to roller derby, it's a yawner.
What's the best thing soccer ever did for America?
Dumb? Far from it. The KU soccer club has two pre-med, two pre-law, two architecture, two electrical engineering and two aerospace engineering students on its roster. We could field an entire team of players with GPAs above 3.5.
Sure, soccer matches have both started and stopped wars. In 1969, a World Cup qualifying match between Honduras and El Salvador resulted in a full-scale war. Contrast that to the fact that Nigeria and Biafra declared a two-day truce in their war so that both sides could go watch Pele play in an exhibition match.
team will keep coming to our parties.
Are American players and good at
competing?
I'll say yes, that way the women's
Can women play soccer?
Diego skill for skill. In fact, we could field an entire team of small "g" greets if we wanted to, although they'd be a largely different group from our all-academic squad.
Golly, I'm in political science; maybe I should learn how to play soccer.
Why do so many greeks play soccer at KU?
They're not too shabby. In the past, finding an American player on the KU Soccer Club proved rather difficult. Nowadays, Skip III can match
Great idea. Better still, why not come and watch the KU Soccer Club play some day? And don't worry about it being the most boring sport on campus. After all, we've outscoored the football team on a few weekends this fall.
Small-town life suits him fine
"Why do you stay in Pine Bluff?"
I can't count the number of times I've heard that question addressed to local businessmen, ministers, teachers — not to mention the handyman and friend who comes out to our house whenever we have a problem with the air conditioning.
Paul Greenberg
151
His answer is to sort of shrug his shoulders, allow as how it's as good a town as any other he knows of, and to mention that his old assistant is just back from a few years in Houston, having enjoyed the big city about as much as he could stand.
Rand McNally's nine criteria do matter: climate and terrain, housing, health care and environment, recreation, the arts, and economics.
The notion that people pick the towns where they'll live on the basis of some impersonal statistical tabulation is perpetrated annually by publications such as Rand McNally's "Places Rated Almanac". Everything I know about people says it ain't necessarily so. Rand McNaly has nine statistical standards for a place to live, which it presents with a lot of lubricum certitude and no feeling at all.
The spiritual quality of a community; The town's courtesy level, which may be roughly defined as the sum of civilities a stranger could reasonably expect to enjoy there; Rootedness, a quality closely related to a sense of place; Diversity; Loyalty, which is not to be confused with conformity and is not only to one's neighbors but
But none of these matter much in isolation from the more personal aspects of a town, such as my own nine:
to one's principles; Generosity, including a generosity of spirit; Pride, also known as self respect, and not to be confused with simple boosterism or public relations; Tolerance; Openness.
How can one judge a place without looking for qualities like these other nine? Any town could measure up in all of Rand McNally's categories, and, without these other qualities, be hard to distinguish from Hell.
Whether a place turns out to be full of such personal qualities will be up to the individual in a small town in a way it can't be to one of the countless myriads in a great city. There is no hiding in a small town, not much chance of escaping into anonymity. The newspaperman who writes about folks is going to see them the next day, and have to live with them. When he messes up, it's an embarrassment that can't be hidden. When he triumphs, his community does.
It's good for the character, this awareness of being watched. A Talmudic sage once theorized that men feared other men more than they did their God, since they would do things solely in God's presence that they would never think of committing before the eyes of their fellow men. It's not as easy to escape those eyes in a small town, or to escape the responsibility of having to take a stand from time to time.
Yes, by Rand McNally's not-very deep standards, choosing to live in a small town may demand certain sacrifices. But if the standard of living isn't as high, that doesn't mean the standard of life is any lower. On the contrary, people in small towns have to be more involved; there aren't as many of us. It isn't as easy to live an isolated life among your own class, religion, race or political persuasion. Maybe that explains the persistence of volunteers in small-town America, or the amount of leadership it produces. There isn't anybody else to do the job around here if we won't.
There is something offensive about the underlying assumption of tabulations like Rand McNally's, namely that people will choose a place to live on the basis of what they can get out of it. There is something in us all that seeks not just what we can get but what we can give.
A small town is closer to John Winthrop's old vision of a city on the hill. "To be a city on the hill," he told his fellow Puritans, "we must bear one another's burdens. We must look not only to our own things, but on the things of our brethren. We must rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together."
There is a chance to know and shape a small town in a way it would never be possible to know and shape a great city. A small town is a constant refutation of the impersonal and statistical, a place where people will constantly surprise you. That is, if you're still open to surprise, and not lost in the kind of sophistication big cities and too many big newspapers inspire.
Yes, perhaps there are things you have to put up with in a smaller community. Perhaps the most irritating is the inferiority complex that prompts the common question, "Why do you stay in Pine Bluff?" As though staying had to be explained, not leaving. Leaving may make sense by Rand McNally's standards but not by real ones. The same inferiority complex prompts that strange question one invariably hears at an elegant party, or even at the opening of a new shopping mall in town, an incredulous "Can you believe this is Pine Bluff?"
What's not to believe? It's not the predictable extension of a uniform national culture that is incredible; it's that we're holding on to as much of our past, of our eccentricities, of ourselves as we do. That's the remarkable accomplishment in an increasingly homogenized culture.
Mailbox
In response to the Oct. 28 Kansar article, "Arms talks worry some W Germans":
Speech one-sided
Having read the article, I was very upset about the generalizations and one-sidedness in this article to describe the West German point of view on nuclear disarmament.
Before I explain what has bothered me I have to say I did not hear Thomas Kielinger speak and that my critique is based only on the article. I do not know whether he qualified his statements or whether the reporter omitted important explanations when he compiled the article.
But what I know for sure is that Kielinger's thesis required a verification. I am a German student, and to avoid his fault of generalization, I can only speak for myself and for a section of the KU German student population.
I am not worried about any arms talks, about the "terrifying" perspective that nuclear weapons might be pulled out of Europe, or the threat to be blackmailed by the Soviet Union. People I know are rather concerned about the viability of Reagan and Gorbachev to receive any major arms reductions.
I would not feel less safe in Germany if the Americans removed their nuclear intermediate an- ne weapons. The continued presence of U.S. strategic nuclear weapons and submarine-launched ballistic missiles and our conventional forces still guarantee the inhuman and disgusting system of nuclear deterrence.
I am afraid of the endless buildup of overkill potentials on both sides and of the tremendous waste of money and research for projects, developed to kill humans. Many students in West Germany are tired of these resultless "public shows" like the Iceland summit or the endless negotiations in Geneva.
Referring again to Kielinger, the necessity of disarmament is not a question of the will to "demilitarize simply for the sake of demilitarization" but a demand of reason. Lake Kielinger, I can only speak for one part of the German people — but I think it is important that the midwest Kansas student understands that the German public opinion toward nuclear disarmament is very complex and diverse.
Referring again to Kielinger, the necessity of disarmament is not a question of the will to "demilitarize" for the sake of demilitarization but a demand of reason. Like Kielinger, I can only speak for one part of the German people, but I think it is important that the Kansas student understands that the German public opinion toward nuclear disarmament is very complex and diverse
Thomas Stockfish
Kiel, West Germany
graduate student