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Tuesday, October 27, 1992
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Kansas would benefit from fifth Dole term
Gloria O'Dell calls her Senate campaign against Bob Dole "Gloria Versus Goliath," and with good reason. Few people in the state have been
good reason. Few people in the state have been willing to challenge one of the real giants of our government, and fewer still could mount any sort of real threat to Dole's chances of re-election.
This is not to say that O'Dell or the other candidates—Libertarian Mark Kirk and Independent Christina Campbell-Cline—are incapable of representing Kansas well, but none of them are in a position to do as much for Kansas as Dole.
Dole has been a senator for longer than most of the students here have been alive. He is one of the few truly influential people in the Senate today, someone who has been the Senate majority leader and served on numerous Senate committees.
It would be hard to overestimate the positive impact that Dole's term has had on Kansas. Dole has almost single-handedly preserved the small aircraft industry in Wichita, and his influence has brought numerous federal grants and projects to the state. He is also a highly respected leader on the national level, one who flirted with the presidency and who served as President Gerald Ford's running mate in 1976.
In a time when the House and Senate have been plagued by scandal, Dole remains remarkably untainted. His leadership and experience are a real asset to the state and should not be overlooked. Many states with larger populations and more electoral votes are served by less effective senators and would love to send a leader of Dole's stature to Congress.
The voters of Kansas should return Dole to the Senate to serve his fifth term as their senator.
MARK COATNEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Hey deadbeat fans, KU football is good
It was one of those mediocre week nights when my roommate exclaimed, "Lance, we gotta go see the Jayhawks kick some Silo Tech ass this weekend!" I was offended.
After years of unsuccessfully trying to persuade this vagrant to wake up from his hangover coma and actually attend a Jawhayk football game, he must have heard a fair weather report for game day and decided to visit.
He's just like a lot of you poser fans who jump on the bandwagon and flaunt our beloved crimson and blue when the going gets easy. Where were you in the past years when we weren't listed in the Top 25? Ou drowning your sorrows and taking Saferide from bar to bar, maybe? Or were you talking about the upcoming basketball season, sitting on your fat, follow-the-crowd, lazy but instead of having some real character and (heaven forbid!) rooting for the underdog, perhaps? Hell, why don't I just bake you a cookie for contributing to the Kansan headlines of biggest crowd ever?
Sure, it's about time that the Jay Hawks are finally getting the fan support they deserve at their games. What they've accomplished is incredible. But they don't need the fair weather parasites that will say, "Oh, well, at least our basketball team is good," at the first sign of struggle.
It's also about time that people get out of the rock they're under and start realizing that football at
KU is good, too. I'm sick of hearing the old line, "Football sucks, but basketball's good." Those days went out with George Bush's high approval rating.
OK, maybe I'm being overly negative. No, I don't think so. You fair weather faction need to quit being so spineless and show the kind of faith in the 'Hawks that they have in themselves. When's the last time you came back from a 26-point deficit to beat a big Eight football team? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Lance Hobson Tokyo, Japan junior
Pumpkin thieves need to grow up
Dear Pumpkin Thieves and Halloween Pranksters,
My small children have had their pumpkins, which they lovingly chose at the Pumpkin Patch, stolen twice now, totaling six pumpkins. (We took a second trip to Pumpkin Patch.)
Their hearts have been broken, and their faith in humankind shaken, to say the least. You have stolen more than pumpkins here, folks — you have stolen innocence and trust.
Please save your pubescent pranks for someone your own size or better yet, grow up! Feel free to return our pumpkins if you have a shred of human decency.
Michele Sack
Lawrence
KANSAN STAFF
ERIC NELSON
Editor
GREG FARMER Managing editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
Asst. Managing ... Almee Brainard
News ... Alexander Bloemhof
Editorial ... Stephen Martino
Campus ... Gavie Oxtemberg
Sports ... Shelly Solon
Photo ... Justin Knapp
Features ... Cody Hut
Graphics ... Sevien Tevin
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
SCOTT HIANNA
Business manager
HILLELIEBIGOOD
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing admin
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr      Angela Clevenger
Regional sales mgr    Tessa Melissa Tetra
National sales mgr     Brian Wilkes
Co-op sales mgr     Amy Stumbo
Production mgrs       Brad Broren
Marketing director  Kim Claxton
Creative director   Valerie Spicher
Classified mgr    Indith Standley
**Letters** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writing affiliated with the University of Minnesota should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be required to return the letter to re-ject or edit letters, guest column and cartoons. They can also type questions in a format similar to those used in the Kausen reserves for the rejection letters, guest columns and cartoons.
"The Times They are a-Changin' "
"Like Cool, Man"
Beatniks
1950's
"Peace and Love"
Hippies
1960's
Who Knows?
1970's
"Greed is Good"
Yuppies
1980's
"I'll Get Mine"
Yuggies
(Young Urban Guerrillas)
1990's
Dirt-slinging Bush comes out on bottom in campaign ethics
"The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come." Revelation 9:12
It takes a politician of rare courage and brass to make claims about one's opponent that, in one breath, smack him, negativity and outright hypocrisy.
STAFF COLUMNIST
George Bush has been labeling Bill Clinton a "waffler" much in the same way he labeled Michael Dukakis in 1988. Instead of discussing what his plans might be for the economy, the federal government and the U.S. taxpayer if he manages to get re-elected, Bush has been spouting accusations about his opponent's character. Where will it end? Only a man as desperate and crazed as Bush would be able to accuse his opponent of "waffling" after he had lied about his role in Iran-Contra, broken a "No New Taxes" pledge and waffled, evaded and denied any culpability about his coddling of Saddam Hussein before the Gulf War. Yes, indeed, George Bush has shown his character in all its loathsome detail to the American people.
KEVIN BARTELS
Evil news has been appearing in the papers and on the television lately. I opened Sunday's paper to find articles saying awful things, such as "Clinton slipping; Bush closing the gap." Naturally, the wicked group of fixers that Bush has surrounded himself with are delighted with the news, laughing gleefully at the thought of another four years of raping the U.S. government, while Big George continues to rant against the very polls, pollsters and journalists who chart him as improving in the race. Ah, politics.
But, wait folks, there's plenty more dirt where that came from! As of Sunday, Ross has come out with a new one that promises to have true entertainment value: a nefarious plot concocted by the Republicans to smear Perot's daughter with a "distorted picture and to "disrupt" her wedding ceremony. Little Ross accused the Republicans of driving him out of the race initially by threatening to run his daughter's reputation. The charges were denounced as wild and baseless by the ever-glab Marlin Fitzwater but in light of the use of the State Department by the Republicans to investigate Clinton's files and Clinton's mother's files, the accusations do not seem all that surprising.
What remains truly nauseating about Bush's negative campaigning efforts is that he remains the only candidate in the race still solely relying on sneer tactics to preserve his political future.
"Gota put it in focus," snarls a redeyed Bush, his face contorted with fear as he struggles to bring attention to his attackers. But without his posturing, what does
trust have to tour? A dismal record as president — barfing in Japan, a failed policy of trickle-down economics, a grim recession, spiraling unemployment and a doggie-bag of broken or unfulfilled campaign promises.
Voters going to the polls on Nov. 3 should remember Bush's repeated failures as President — from "Read my lips" to Iraqand—should fear the consequences of a Bush victory. The Desolate One and his evil minions would have voters convinced that the centerfold of Gennifer Flowers is more important than Clinton's plan for rebuilding the economy. Bush and his gang of fixers only tout the negative because they have no platform to stand on.
Finally, George F. Will, lap dog conservative and columnist, wrote recently that Bush was "presiding over a welcome miniaturization of the presidency." What Will did not add is that the miniaturization has been in the president's credibility as a leader and in his vision of how that leadership can work. Kevin Bartels is a Louisville, Ky., graduate student malingor in English.
Homecoming confronts problems with the future
STAFF COLUMNIST
Whoops. For a minute there, I thought I was a syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
The other night, my friend Slats Grobnick and I were at a local drinking establishment when—
With midterm looming and papers due, writing a column was the last thing on my mind. But because I had stupidly promised to do just that, I was stuck in the newsroom with an impatient editor hovering nearby.
"I have to do this tonight," I said.
"What should I write?"
"Write about homecoming," she said
For the first time, I had close friends returning to school for the event. Friends who have graduated and moved on to what I still refer to as the "real world." Friends who told tales of life in a world free of exams and term papers. Friends who discouraged the hell out of me.
Expecting an answer filled with
JULIE WASSON
enthusiasm, I asked a friend how her job as a reporter was going.
Another friend, who has been employed for less than six months, is sick.
"Well, I think it's a good job for me, right now," she said cautiously. "But I don't see myself staying there very long."
To someone who is already in her fifth year as an undergraduate, these reports are discouraging to say the least. I'm sure my parents already think that reality avoidance was the
prime motivation for my second undergraduate degree.
"Aren't you glad to you don't have homework anymore?" I asked, looking for some semblance of hope. "Isn't great not to have to study?"
"Those things don't seem so bad anymore." was the common reply.
"But how could you miss all nighters?" I asked. "How could you miss dragging through days on end with only three hours' sleep? How could you miss worrying about exams and managing to pull a decent grade out of calculus?"
"How could you miss enrollment?"
How could you miss them when people recalled even enrollment fondly, I realized that maybe they shouldn't panic. I mean, even the most aggravating situations don't seem so bad when you're no longer involved in them. Remember high school?
When I think of high school, I think of senior year. I think of the days that we skipped class to do more worth
while things, I think of football games,
parties and road trips. I think of laying
out my page for the newspaper at the
very last minute and being glad that
I didn't have to take things too serious
ly.
I never think about constantly being forced to do buswork. I never think about worrying about SATs and ACTs and writing essays for college applications. I never think about many other things that I can't remember right now because I never think about them.
So, I'm going to take my friends lamentations with a proverbial grain of salt.
And if I come back next year, fondly recollecting the good old days when we trapped in the *Kansan* newsroom until 4 a.m. I hope someone will remind me of this column.
I also hope they won't hit me when I tell them it was wrong.
tell them it was a Springfield, Mo., senior majoring in political science and journalism.
Grace
By David Rosenfield