4
一
Tuesday, November 10, 1992
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Even though election is over involvement should continue
Voters should take a more active role in the political process and decision making beyond casting a vote or expressing opinions at election time.
This year voter turnout was an improvement of almost 5 percent compared to 1988. Bill Clinton, campaigning as an advocate for change, defeated the incumbent president. And Ross Perot received about 18 percent of the popular vote.
The so-called grassroot supporters of Perot lobbied in 51 states to include their candidate on the ballot. Never has there been so much enthusiasm for an independent candidate. It would be a shame if this enthusiasm and political participation subsided and did not resurface until the next campaign.
President Bush had large sections of the population supporting his re-election bid. Republicans as well as some Democrats found him to be the best candidate. Despite Bush's loss, his supporters should not feel as if they must wait four years in order to become active in political matters again even if the president and the legislative branch are controlled by Democrats.
Life goes on. And every decision that comes from the leadership in this country still affects everyone.
Meanwhile, those who voted for Clinton cannot become complacent. Creating change can only happen within a system that supports that change. Citizens must continue to make their voices heard to ensure that the change we have gambled on becomes a reality.
FRANK WILLIAMS FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Canada's referendum reflects dissatisfaction
Notwithstanding the "no" vote in the Canadian referendum ... Canada is not going to fall apart, at least not in the immediate future. .. It would be premature to conclude that the spirit of accommodation has been totally abandoned in Canada. Rather, the vote reveals skepticism with the Canadian political leadership as a whole.
Canada's economy has not done too well in the last few years and Prime Minister Mulroney is probably the most unpopular leader in the country. Canadians cannot be faulted for being concerned more about recession than about constitutional arrangements arrived at by discredited politicians.
Evidently, Canada has not entirely escaped from the current global phenomenon of sharpened ethnic consciousness; Quebec's quest for separateness, if not outright secession, remains unsatisfied; but it will be a while before new leaders emerge both in Ottawa and Montreal who could steer Canada decisively out of its current crisis of untogetherness.
The Times of India New Delhi, India
It seems a faintly amusing thought that Canada—rich, admired for its lifestyle, a people not given to extremes of action or violent disagreement—could split up. Such a thing, much the temper of the times, is supposed to happen in arid regions where an unremitting harsh life keeps alive old feuds and the deadweight of history.
Like the crazy quilt of the old Soviet empire and the Slav countries to the south. But Canada, the one of homogeneity, democratic institutions, civility? Indeed the momentum has picked up. The pity is that (the election's) negative result has given the process more spin but this harmful shift may have been missed by much of a nation preoccupied with joblessness and rising prices.
Straits Times Singapore
KANSAN STAFF
ERIC NELSON
Editor
SCOTT HANNA
Business manager
GREG FARMER
Managing editor
BILL LIEBENGOOD
Retail sales manager
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
Editors Business Staff
Asst. Managing Alimee Brainard Campus sales mgr Angela Clevenger
News Alexander Blohmbow Regional Sales mgr Mellasa Teriag
Editorial Stephen Martinco National Sales mgr Brian Wilkes
Campus Gayle Osterberg Co-op sales mgr Amy Stumbo
Sports Sheily Solon Production mgrs Brad Breon
Photo Justin Knupp Marketing director Ashley Langford
Features Cody Holt Creative director Valerie Spiercher
Graphics Sean Tevis Classified mgr Judith Standley
Business Staff
Beat up clunker scares BMWs out of the way
I offered the friend a lift home. When we got to the parking lot, he stopped and stared at my minivan, a book of distaste coming over his face.
He shook his head. "When was the last time you had it washed?"
**Letters** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the University of Kansas logo and author name. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and number codes. **Forest columns** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be the Kansas researcher to right or reject letters, great column and cartoons. They can be typed, double-spaced, and fewer than 700 words.
"How old is this thing?" he asked.
"About two years. Who?"
I had to think for a moment. "Probably in March. Or maybe February."
"You haven't had it washed in eight months?"
We arrived at my friend's building and as he got out, one of his neighbors appeared. The neighbor gaped at my car. My friend looked embarrassed. So I rolled the window down and yelled: "Remember, try the plunger. If that don't make it flush right, I'll come and tear the dang thing apart. See you later, cousin."
"That's not entirely accurate. I regularly clean the windows inside and out. Need good visibility for safe driving. And at least once a month I throw out the empty plastic coffee cups."
He put a finger on the minivan and made a sound, something like "Uchh. The grime feels like it's an inch thick."
"Actually one more thunderstorm and you'll be able to see what color it is. Blue, if you're interested."
COLUMNIST
"Then why the heck don't you get it washed and have the don't take it."
"Oh, some of them did. But in a month, the letters were obliterated by a new layer of soot."
We got in and in a disgusted voice he said, "Look, my hand got dirty just opening the door." His distaste growing, he said: "I don't understand this. It's a nice car. Or it could be. But it's filthy, you're missing two hubcaps, and there's a crease in the side."
He grimaced. "This is the kind of car kids draw the words 'wash me on.'"
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
So I explained, "If I had it washed and had the crease removed and the hubsCAP replaced, it would be just another middle-class, minivan. And I
"Somebody sideswiped it while it was parked on the street."
"Or when I am at a red light, and some swell guy in his BMW pulses up on my right and thinks he is going to zip ahead of me when the light changes, 1 gooise. He has visions of his 12 coats of Bavarian paint rubbing up against my 12 coats of bird droppings. I have yet to see one call my bluff."
MIKE ROYKO
would not get any respect. But the way it is now, I got lots ofrespect."
"Respect?" he said. "What kind of respect do you get for a filthy car?"
"Look around, I said. "Tell me what kind of cars you see."
He glanced around. There was a gleaming black Lexus, a shiny, gray Lincoln Town Car and the usual assortment of neat, perky Hondas.
"See? Respect. Or at the very least, fear. There he is, in his $40,000 status symbol. But when he sees me, do you know what he thinks? He becomes terrified and he thinks: 'There goes some illiterate slob who wouldn't give a second thought to having a fender bender with me. And he probably doesn't even have insurance.' That's what they all think, the hot-rodding young women in their little sports cars, the cigar chompers in the Lincoln and Caddies, the pork-belly traders in their Infinities and Lexuses. Fear, which in our society, translates into respect. Watch this."
When I did, the Lexus dropped back,
making room for me.
"Now watch," I said. "I'm going to change lanes."
"This is the final touch," I said, slapping it on my head backwards. "Now I look like a self-employed hand man, possibly a recent arrival from the Ozarks. I had it on the other day when a lane-hopping sports car persisted in trying to squeeze in front of me. When she glanced over, I let my tongue hang out and kind of leered. She not only decided to stay in her own lane, she got off at the next exit ramp."
Kansan photos create confusion
Once again, I changed lanes. And the Town Car seemed to flee in terror.
"See? When I merge onto an expressway, no matter how crowded it is, they make room. I just turn on the blinker and it's like magic. A gaping hole appears. Some of them are afraid that besides the dented fender, they'll contract some incurable infection. Especially when I wear the hat."
"What hat," my friend asked.
I reached down and got it, a beat-up old cap, the kind house painters wear.
I'm afraid that I can no longer restrain myself.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Your last article that discussed the KU football team once again had a photograph that misidentified the player. If my memory serves correctly, this is about the fourth time this mistake has been made.
I feel if the Kansan put any effort into making sure these errors didn't happen , they would not turn up nearly so often . I could accept one mistake. But four? I recognize that basketball and football are bigger sports, but the arbitrary reporting of the Kansan should represent each
KU volleyball is one of the few sports that any student can witness free. Nowhere else does everybody who attends get to go out on the playing surface and try to win exciting prizes while having a great time
forms. I also saw a strange thing that appeared to be a program. I wonder what this could mean? It is very simple to look at a player, look at her number and then compare it to the program. Is there something blocking this simple procedure?
sport equally
At the last game I attended, the players had numbers on their uni-
Charles Frey Brockport, NY., junior
STAFF COLUMNIST
I would like to see the Kansas get its next photo correctly labeled, and I would hope to see a furious frenzy of raucous, deafening KU fans at the final home game against Kansas State on Wednesday.
McDonald's can only hire so many.
The most important consideration in choosing your career should be that you do something you enjoy. Any job gets old after a while. In choosing a career, make sure you find something with which you can actually support yourself.
KATE KELLEY Happiness is a must in choosing your career
Another registration period has passed, and many of you are trying to decide what you are going to get your degree in. You are not alone. After 17 years and five universities, I am still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up.
There are so many possibilities, the mind is hogged. But there are ways of narrowing the field. The process of elimination is the first step. For instance, for me, any career that requires me to pay any more money to a school and spend even more time in a classroom is out, ruling out any future as a doctor or lawyer.
Jobs requiring technical expertise in computers, engines, or anything you have to plug in are off my list. My mind does not work that way and refuses even to try anymore. I let my 10-year old son program the VCR.
Work experience helps many people choose a career. My friends from high school, Dawn and Tracy, spent one summer working as nurses 'aides in a retirement home. They had fun jobs like changing linens, giving baths, and feeding people. Dawn was inspired by the sense of the service to humanity she was providing, and went on to get a degree in nursing.
She is now the head nurse in a hospital. Tracy was groused out by the whole thing and decided to stay home and raise seven children, which includes changing linen, giving baths and feeding people.
My friend, Jason, works evenings and weekends at a large wholesale mart. After having to politely accommodate disagreeable people who try to return used, broken junk they have for months, bring their entire clam into the store and let them run wild, shoplift and write bad checks, he knows he wants some kind of job after college in which he will not have to deal directly with people at all.
I used to want to be a teacher. But during the years interrupting my education, I had a few kids of my own and spent a lot of time in classrooms and on field trips as a parent volunteer (read: sucker.) I found out I have no patience with other people's kids. You must have lots of patience to be a good teacher because children, those sweet little creatures, can be little demons from hell. There is not much a teacher can do anymore in the way of discipline. There are laws against spanking and isolating kids. Therefore, about all a teacher can do is talk with the parents and hope they will discipline their child. My experience is, the kids who are the most disruptive and obnoxious have the parents who are most blind to these qualities. My friend, Denise, has taught second grade for 10 years. She loves it. Children adore her. She has no plans to have children of her own.
Of course, there is no guarantee that your degree will have anything at all to do with your job. My husband, who is an archaeologist in theology, he fires helicopters for the Army.
Kate Kelley is a Fort Leavenworth junior majoring in English.
Grace
By David Rosenfield