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Thursday, October 29, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The HOPE award is supposed to be from students to teachers. Because it comes from the students, it is one of the most important awards a KU teacher can receive.
Hopes dashed
But this year, one teacher wasn't allowed to compete after being nominated by the students. Daryl Palmer, a Lawrence graduate student, was among the 42 teachers nominated earlier this month for the Honor for Outstanding Progressive Educator. Then he advanced into the pool of 10 semifinalists. Then his name was thrown out.
And along with his name, the wishes of many students were also thrown out.
The HOPE award is supposed to be for excellence in teaching. If the HOPE award is only for professors, then the award really is for excellence in teaching by professors.
All excellent teachers, regardless of their age or rank at the University, should qualify. Professors can be excellent teachers, and so can graduate teaching assistants.
Although they are students, teaching assistants educate and influence their students, just as professors do. In fact, teaching assistants probably are more influential than professors during most students' freshman and sophomore years.
For years, only professors have been eligible for the HOPE award. It's time that the HOPE award is broadened to include all teachers.
The award is from the seniors at the University of Kansas. Their votes should count.
Laws save lives
Alcohol Awareness Week is a time to reconsider the most responsible way to deal with alcohol — not only individually, but also as a society.
The most far-reaching, damaging consequence of alcohol consumption is the lives lost and damaged by drunken-driving incidents.
Although the group may be asking for too much, two of their proposals point blatantly to the lenency of current Kansas law.
Kansans for Life at Its Best, the state's temperance organization, is pushing for stricter laws against drunken driving. Their aim is to get a package of seven measures passed by the 1988 Legislature.
They propose that causing the death of another person while driving under the influence be made a felony. They further propose to suspend or revoke, for 90 days, the driver's license of a person convicted of driving under the influence for the first time. These strong disciplinary measures are not currently used in Kansas.
Alcohol Awareness Week emphasizes to students moderation when drinking.
Stricter drunken-driving laws would emphasize to all Kansans the citizens' intolerance of drinking and driving.
Hit and miss
Flying is the way to go.
A record number of passengers flew out of Kansas City International Airport last month. Further, one airline is adding planes to increase its service in and out of KCI by up to 35 percent.
There is no question about it, modern society is increasingly mobile — with no turning back. The industry is stuck with thousands of planes to route and hundreds of thousands of passengers to deliver safely. And, as the number of planes in the air grows, so do the dangers.
Close calls are on the rise.
The number of reported near collisions in the air has been increasing at an alarming rate — up 50 percent so far this year. However, airline officials soothingly tell the public that the statistical change is not in itself very meaningful.
Perhaps not, but when coupled with a 50 percent decrease over the past nine years in computer, radar and systems maintenance technicians employed by the Federal Aviation Administration, the problem becomes obvious.
The skies aren't as empty as they used to be. Rather than hoping that avoided collisions mean good piloting, transportation experts need to fine-tune the "rules of the air," and establish a routine of careful scheduling, routing and monitoring of planes by plenty of trained professionals. For safety's sake.
Correction
Because of an editor's error, the class rank of Otis A Livingston was listed incorrectly. He is a junior.
News staff
Jennifer Benjamin ... Editor
Juli Warren ... Managing editor
John Benner ... News editor
Beth Copeland ... Editorial editor
Sally Streff ... Campus editor
Brian Kablerine .. Sports editor
Dian Ruettlmann .. Photo editor
Bill Skeet .. Graphics editor
Tom Eblen .. General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Bonnie J. Hardy...Business manager
Robert Hughes...Advertising manager
Kelly Scherer...Retail sales manager
Kurt Messeramith...Campus sales manager
Kevin King...Production manager
David Derfelt...National sales manager
Angela Clark...Classified manager
Ron Weems...Director of marketing
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
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Out, damned spot!
Scam scars leaders' credibility
The nation has once again experienced selective amnesia.
For seven years Americans refused to think ill of our president, obscuring unpleasant details by viewing his presidency and the state of the nation through rose-colored glasses. Now, reluctantly, we have acknowledged the probable wrongdoing of our leader; two-thirds of us believe he led about his involvement in the diversion of money to the contras.
Nonetheless, we have been characteristically eager to put this disturbing episode out of our minds and to "get on with the business of President Reagan (not surprisingly) advocates.
But indeed, to do so is to abandon our task of correcting those tragic flaws that led to the scandal. Not only the president but other key players in the affair are still at the helm of the ship of state, including Attorney General Edwin Meese and Vice President George Bush.
The business of government ought to be to clean its house and punish the guilty so that a constitution can be built.
The details of Reagan's involvement scarcely need rehashing. The bottom line is this: If blaming his subordinates gets the president off the hook, then he can do anything he wants. He need only wink and nod to his underlings to achieve his will without impediment.
Impeachment proceedings should not have been initiated, if only to set the precedent that a president who is not running for re-election is not free of obligation in the twilight of his presidency. There must be accountability, but not impeachment.
Meesw was a key man in the cover-up of the operation. His initial inquiry, which led him to refuse requests by the FBI to turn the case over to them for criminal investigation, was nothing more than an empty gesture. It consisted of five-minute interviews with Lt. Col. Oliver North and
Adm. John Poindexter at which no other Justice Department officials were present, and at which
Meese also failed to search North's office even though he knew it contained vital evidence. In fact, north testified that some of Meese's subordinates were present while he shredded documents during those crucial few days of foot dragging by the attorney general.
Furthermore, Meese lied about his prior knowledge of the affair. Although he denied being aware of the operation before it became public, the record shows that Meese was present at meetings at which the matter was discussed. He later tried to reconcile this conflict by saying that although he may have been present, he did not participate and was not aware of what was being discussed. Was he sitting in the corner with his ears covered?
He also stalled before turning over evidence to the Iran-Contra Committee. But more importantly, it was discovered that the Justice Department, which had redated evidence presumably to omit irrelevant but nonetheless sensitive information, and obviously pertinent passages of documents.
The man who should most be feared by those who value integrity in government is George Bush.
The vice president's top aide, Donald Gregg, has admitted that he knew of North's activities — but he, like Poindexter, pulled the noble Roman
soldier routine and fell on the sword for his Caesar. He claims that he decided not to tell Bush what he knew because the information was too personal, the second highest ranking official in our government.
Imagine that Poindexter and Gregg both discover seriously questionable conduct by North, and both arrive at the same decision — without a reason — not to tell their bosses. What a coincidence.
That is, it would be if it were not another lie.
A recently released memo, found in Bush's appointment book, outlines a meeting scheduled for April 31, 1986, at which Bush was to be briefed on the "war in El Salvador and the resupply of the contras." This date is long before Bush claims to have found out about the operation.
Gregg says he didn't write the memo; a second aide, who was the only other man to have access, also denied writing it. And both men acknowledge that Bush's secretary is extremely reliable and never types anything other than what she is instructed to. Apparently no one wrote the memo.
Appallingly, the revelations about Bush's involvement have received little attention other than cursory news brief. We have slammed the door on the scandal and we don't seem to care what evil still lurks in our government, as long as we don't have to look it in the eye.
And yet look it in the eye we must, if we are to prevent the ascendance of deception and demagogue over our democratic institutions. Although President Reagan will probably never suffer the consequences of his complicity, Meese and Bush would have been more likely to impower that we recognize them for what they are - liars and lawbreakers who have no place in government.
Ben Shultz is a Manhattan senior majoring in political science and English.
K·A·N·S·A·N
MAILBOX
Sober issue
I am writing in response to Dan Houston's article entitled, "Students pick drinking styles," in the Oct. 16 issue.
I agree that it is "Superficial, narrow-minded and asinine to classify all of a population on one characteristic," especially since he seemed to have left out a small but nevertheless existing category of people. As much as Mr. Houston may find it hard to believe, there are a number of people who choose not to drink for any number of reasons, and — surprise, surprise — we don't all try to push Bibles and value judgments on everyone.
This may come as a shock to Mr. Houston and those who think along his relatively narrow lines, but non-drinkers are people, too. We have "normal" urges, habits, beliefs, ideas and values. In comparison, I'd say we non-drinkers enact fewer urges to preach "Never on Sunday" morals than drinkers in their urges to push drinking on us.
As far as Richard Burton and Mr. Houston's apparent concurrence with him, I think they are devastatingly wrong. I am an interesting person in my own right, and, wonders of the world, I can even be fun to be around — sober.
Also, a bit of advice from me on your notes for class Mr. Houston: roll out of bed about 20 minutes on a hat, grab your bottle of aspirin, take your own notes — in class.
Although I have done so a few times in this letter, I try not to make judgments about others' drinking. I respect their choice to do so and for who or what they are. I would appreciate reciprocated respect in my choice not to drink and to be my own person — without my beliefs or values being dictated to me by a phantom journalist.
Brutally insensitive
The death of a young person is always a sad and tragic thing, and I am appalled at Kansan reporter's crass handling of the death of Ron Van Eeckhout. We are in not New York or Los Sahres and violence are so common that they almost become to be a tragedy. We are here in Lawley, Kan
As students here at KU, we all share an
alliance, one that should make us a little more sensitive to each other as human beings.
The headline for the article was a brutal and unnecessary stab of sensationalism, and the article as a whole did not a trace of humanity. The lesson we learn from this is now we learn about the loss of a friend.
Kirsten R. Fasching, Pasadena, Calif., junior
Devisive action
They can, of course, promise anything. Their true colors show through, however, in the recent actions of Tom Madden, the imported NEA organizer. He was quick to seize the first opportunity to establish an adversarial and litigious relationship with Executive Vice Chancellor Ramaley, referring her comments in The Oread to the NEA legal staff.
Faculty union organizers have gone to great lengths to assure us that their unions are not divisive and that, indeed, they will strengthen our collegiality.
For myself, I do not care to live and work in an environment where the "workers" are going to refer to counsel every utterance of the "bosses," hoping to find cause for legal action.
William Mitchell is a librarian at Spencer Research Library.
BLOOM COUNTY
Today:
Ms. Leona O'Connor,
Exec. Vice President of Bloom County, Inc.
will tell a funny political joke.
All of us here in management are behind you the whole way, Leona! Go for it, girl!
by Berke Breathed
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