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Friday, November 13, 1992
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Jayhawks' final home game is worthy of strong turnout
It is no secret that the Kansas Jayhawk football team is having an outstanding season. However, after last week's defeat at Nebraska, it is also not a secret that the Hawks still have not entered the upper echelon of college football, where teams such as Nebraska have resided for so long.
One of the most stirring things about the Nebraska game was the volume of the fan noise inside the stadium. It is no wonder that Nebraska has been so successful. Even late in the second half, when the game was clearly out of reach for Kansas, the noise was still deafening. That type of commitment says a lot about the Cornhuskers' program and their fans' dedication to it.
The Jayhawks are now 7-2 and destined for a bowl game. However, the quality of their play in the last two games of the season will determine how prestigious their bowl bid will be.
This is why a victory in tomorrow's game against Colorado is so vital to the program. Not only is the game going to be televised regionally on ABC, but a victory would solidify our chances for a New Year's Day bowl bid. Factors such as these are tremendously important in building a football powerhouse.
Only a few dozen members of our student body will actually get to take the field, but we as fans can do our part, too. Fill the stadium. It is the last home game of the year. It is the last home game that seniors such as Chip Hilleary and Dana Stubblefield will play for the crimson and blue. And it is a game that can help move Jayhawk football toward national powerhouse status. But to do this we need national powerhouse fans.
JEFF REYNOLDS FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
KU senior says 'thank you' in open letter to Mason
Dear Coach Mason.
In the fall of 1988, I sat in Memorial Stadium along with a few hundred other freshmen at what come to be called KU Traditions Night, part of freshman orientation. One of the things that sticks in my mind about that night was your promise to my class that before we graduated from the University of Kansas, our football team would play in a bowle game.
That was pretty big talk at the time, and it looked just as big at the end of the 1988 football season. We won one game that year. We beat Kansas State.
Then, about two years ago, I started noticing a change.
The reason I remember is because I rode a goal post into Potter Lake after the game. That was fun, but the football season was still downturn bad. Just like a lot of other KU fans, I stuck my head in the sand when it came time to talk college football.
We beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater. We started to crawl out of the cellar. Last year, we beat Tulsa, led Nebraska, and by many accounts should have beaten Colorado. We rounded out a solid, winning season by destroying Missouri, which is fun to do on any occasion.
I watched Tony Sands run for almost 400 yards (and I thought you would leave him in for 400 that day. Football was starting to be almost as much fun as basketball. That's saying something
Coach, what I'm trying to get at is that this football season has been fantastic.
You and the team have done one hell of a job. I know you may have heard everything I'm telling you in one form or another before, but I didn't know if I'd ever get a chance to tell you this again. I'm not sure you can know how proud I am of the team, you, this school and its fans.
Watching the team improve these past five, yes five, years has been great for me. It's the kind of thing that's going to stick with me and keep me coming back to KU football games long after I've graduated.
You've kept your promise to my class, Coach. I'm graduating in the spring and we're going to a bow game before I'm gone.
I don't know if you read the Kansan, Coach. I know you're a busy man. If not, I hope that someone can find a second and stick this letter in front of you, because I wanted to thank you and the team for all you've done for me and for KU this fall.
Thanks, and good luck this week end against Colorado.
Jim Young
Edmond, OK, senior
KANSANSTAFF
SCOTT HANNA Business manager
BILL SKEET Technology coordinator
ERIC NELSON
Editor
Business manager
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
GREG FARMER
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Asst. Managing...Almee Braindal
News...Alexander Bloemhoft
Editorial...Stephen Martino
Campus...Gayle Osterberg
Sports...Shelly Solon
Photo...Justin Knupp
Features...Cody Holt
Graphics...Sean Tevals
BILLLEIBENGOOD
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr   Angela Cleverman
Regional sales mgr   Melissa Terkil
National sales mgr   Brian Wilkes
Co-op sales mgr   Amy Stumbo
Production mgrs  Brad Bran
Kim Claxton
Marketing director  Ashley Langford
Creative director  Valerie Spicher
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FROM NOW ON WE'RE GOING TO BE SPENDING BILLIONS WE DON'T HAVE ON WEAPONS WE DON'T NEED TO PROTECT AGAINST TROUBLE FROM KEY CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS.
WE'VE BEEN SPENDING BILLIONS WE DON'T HAVE ON WEAPONS WE DON'T NEED TO PROTECT AGAINST AN ENEMY WHO NO LONGER EXISTS.
Until federal laws protect people on the basis of sexual orientation, states or municipalities must do so. Laws like Amendment 2 don't prohibit homosexuals from receiving special treatment. Rather, they prevent homosexuals from receiving freedom from prejudice that other groups have based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin.
Most homosexuals I know will tell you that homophobic hatred is alive and well and that equal rights for homosexuals is a myth.
Last week, voters in Colorado approved a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban state and local governments from enacting gay-rights legislation.
He told me about a group of people responding with dignity and conviction to a law that was enacted through ignorance and hatred.
A group called Colorado for Family Values was responsible for getting Amendment 2 on the ballots. Will Perkins, the leader of this group, said he found that "people didn't have hatred or bad feelings toward homosexuals."
Colorado legislation legalizes intolerance
He talked for 30 minutes about the gay community's reaction. He told me about peaceful opposition movements that started the night of the election, and about how Colorado's governor, Denver's mayor, Sen. Pat Schroeder and other legislators had walked hand in hand with a group of gay protesters on election night, vowing to overturn Amendment 2.
I wonder what "people" would have said if Perkins had spoken to homosexuals.
The point of the amendment, he said, was to keep homosexuals from having "special rights."
Julie Wasson is a Springfield, Mo., senior majoring in journalism and political science.
By special rights, Perkins is referring to gay-rights legislation that cities like Denver, Aspen and Boulder have passed that protects homosexuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Amendment 2 rescinds this type of seclusion.
He also said he found that people thought homosexuals had equal rights.
I called a gay friend of mine in Denver two days after the election to get his reaction. I guess I expected him to be angry or bitter. His response surprised me.
Most homosexuals I know will tell you that the kind of gay-rights legislation that will soon be voided in Colorado does not give homosexuals "special rights." Instead, it ensures
STAFF COLUMNIST
them of rights that the general hetero- sexual community takes for granted
Clinton will change U.S. foreign policy
week in response to an active, vocal opposition to Amendment 2?
JULIE WASSON
And can you imagine — I'm speaking just to heterosexuals here — what it would be like to have to watch the pronouns you use when discussing your significant other in public, for fear of saying "she" when you meant to say "he," or vice versa, thereby blowing your cover?
And if people don't have "bad feelings" toward homosexuals, then why all the gay bashing in Denver this
mustn't fallback
And have you ever been of heterosexual being denied a place to live because someone heard that she dates guys?
For example, how often do heterosexuals lose their jobs just because of their sexual orientation? When was the last time you heard a guy say, "They fired me because they found out I'm married to a woman?"
Bill Clinton's foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East, remains uncertain.
You never have. It doesn't happen.
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
It is likely that he will change priorities in the region but not its goals—no major U-turns are likely. In any case, Clinton cannot be an honest mediator and be biased toward Israel.
There is usually a strong line of foreign policy continuity in Washington — although Clinton is likely to face challenges in China, more supportive of Russia.
reform and likely to cut U.S. forces in Western Europe more sharply, and sooner.
But there is a danger that the U.S. federal government could be allowed to become too interventionist without the veto check that Bush used frequently.
He also has one big advantage over Bush — the support of a Democratic Congress which means he will be able to move through with comparative ease.
Gulf Daily News
Manama, Bahrain
After 12 years in the White House, the Republicans are beating a divided retreat — some convinced George Bush betrayed conservative ideals. In Americans' eyes, Bill Clinton's first quality is that he is not Bush who mastered world crises with panache, but remained paralyzed faced with rising dissatisfaction and suffering of his fellow citizens.
Best of all, Clinton is not George Bush
Le Soir
Brussels, Belgium
Loco Locals
STAFF COLUMNIST
MARK COATNEY
Driving under the influence is no joy ride
There was this guy I knew in high school, a really big guy, who because of a combination of enormous body weight and an almost unimbiolar tolerance for alcohol, drank all night, every night, and then drove home.
This was fairly common where I grew up. In a town of 300 people there's not much else to do besides get drunk cruising the back roads.
He was never pulled over, or stopped by the cops. When I met him he had just recovered from spending the night upside down in the truck that he'd overturned in a ditch beside County Road 1. He told me about it, and I laughed because it was a good story. He'd asked the cop who found him why the cop was standing upside down. We laughed, had a few beers, and then a few more. And then we bought a case and drove around.
The thing is, we were wasted. Drunk out of our minds. Not just on one night or a few, but on at least half the nights of our lives. But we were still, at least to anyone watching us, perfectly capable drivers. We obeyed the speed limit. We didn't weave down the road or run stop signs. As far as the police knew, we could have been driving home from the ice cream shop.
So I'm not going to tell you that if you're drunk you aren't able to handle driving, and the cops will catch you. Some people can fool the coats. Coatney's law of drunken driving says that the only drunks that get caught are the stupid ones, the ones who bury the needle on their '69 Barracuda and do 120 nph down K-10 or moon the cop when he drives by. A lot of the people I grew up with, the smart drunks, never did anything like this. We never got DUIs.
There's no moral here, no easy answers. Life as seen through a shot glass is ambiguous at best, and some people can handle the demands of life as a drunk better than others. In the end, the only thing that separates a funny story about waking up upside down in a pickup and a sad story about paralysis is luck.
But people drink to **become** careless, to get the high that comes with not worrying. When you **beuzed**, life doesn't matter as much. Sometimes it becomes the easiest thing in the world to just let go. Fall asleep at the wheel. To not see that the bridge is out. Or to see and just not care.
There was this other guy I knew in high school who spent every night at the Linwood Tavern. He was one of the smart drunks, the careful ones, and every night at midnight when the Tavern closed, he would join the caravan of cars on the five-nile drive to the Dew Drop Inn in DeSoto, which is open until 2 a.m. The road between Linwood and DeSoto has only one curve. One night this guy kept going straight. Now he spends his days in a metal halo, and somebody else drives him to the Dew Drop
The third part of Coatney law is the stupid drinks get caught. The smart
The second part of Coatney's law, the part I don't like to admit when I hear a friend say, "I'm OK to drive," is this: The smart dranks don't go to jail. They just die.
The lucky ones live to write about it.
Mark Coatney is a Linwood graduate student majoring in political science.
By Tom Michaud