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Tuesday, October 6, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Honorable mention
The University of Kansas has established a strong honors program, which gives some special benefits to some special students.
Smaller classes, more individual attention from professors and that extra challenge attract many students to the College Honors Program. Increased enrollment has strained all areas of the University and forced it to stretch one of its greatest resources — the faculty — to its limits.
Departments must use their faculty for the basic required courses, first. The enrollment crunch has forced some departments to reduce the number of honors courses offered, while the number of students enrolling in honors courses is on the rise.
But the honors program still is alive because faculty members and their departments have remained committed to the program.
A university needs to fulfill the needs of all its students. Education should be challenging and stimulating. The honors program offers this for about 800 students this fall.
Because honors courses have been cut, students have suffered and so has the quality of education. The University must continue its commitment to the honors program so that the program can regain lost strength and be allowed to thrive.
Aftershock
Perhaps Los Angeles needed an earthquake to awaken goodwill among its residents.
For some, the quake, which measured 6.1 on the Richter scale, broke dishes and an occasional window. Others weren't so lucky. Six people died as a result of the earthquake, and hundreds were injured.
The threat of aftershocks triggered the flight of hundreds of Southern California residents outside, in hopes they wouldn't fall prey to falling debris.
The earthquake, the strongest in California since 1971, caused an estimated $75 million in damage, at last count.
In essence, an act of nature wrought chaos in the country's most populated state. The shaken nerves, frightful minutes and anxious wait to hear from a friend or family member equal the stress created by the $75 million in damage.
But with the help of volunteers and government agencies, Los Angeles and its suburbs pulled through.
Hours after the quake, structural engineers volunteered to survey buildings for unsafe damage. The Red Cross is still aiding residents who are sleeping outside to escape their fear of falling debris. Counseling centers have been established to help residents cope with stress.
Los Angeles, an earlier victim of freeway gunmen who preyed on motorists, is now uniting to aid those stricken by the quake and prepare residents for future danger.
It's an expensive moral, $75 million that is. But at that price, Los Angeles and the rest of the nation have learned that people can put aside petty quirks of human nature and lend a hand to victims of a natural disaster.
Lend a hand
In spite of unprecedented farm foreclosures and bank failures, the federal government is making it harder than ever for farmers to get loans.
Congress implemented Farmers Home Administration, which was designed to aid farmers who were otherwise unable to secure a loan. It provides in emergencies.
But because of a stricter application screening process, which is scheduled to take effect at the end of the month, FmHA will no longer provide the support farmers need. Currently, the agency helps approximately 250,000 farmers nationwide, but this number will be cut in half when the new rules go into effect.
With the stricter rules, even temporary aid is cut drastically. Short-term loans are valuable to farmers whose income is tied up in expensive machinery. The money necessary to plant next year's wheat is still rooted in this year's soybeans. That is, many farmers lack the liquid assets that other businesses have.
Farmers recently have turned to FmHA for help after their local bank failed. And now FmHa has failed.
Thus, the farm program's strict screening process only reinforces the lonely plight of the U.S. farmer.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
News staff
Jennifer Benjamin ... Editor
Juli Warren ... Managing editor
John Benner ... News editor
Beth Copeland ... Editorial editor
Sally Streff ... Campus editor
Brian Kabeline ... Sports editor
Dan Hertlman ... 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 Messersmith ... Campus sales manager
Greg Knipp ... Production manager
David Derffelt ... National sales manager
Angela Crichton ... Classified manager
Ron Weems ... Director of marketing
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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God's house or White House?
Robertson shifts emphasis from conversations with God
By DONALD M. ROTHBERG The Associated Press
CHESAPEAK, Va. — Television evangelist Pat Robertson had to crack down on one of his most valued books because he'd go on to the air one Saturday night.
Analysis
"I heard the voice of God." Robertson wrote years later. The voice told him, "Don't fire Jim Bakker."
The voice of God, Robertson has said, guided him at many critical moments in his life.
But now he wants people to concentrate on a different side of Marion G. "Pat" Robertson as he campaigns Republican presidential nomination
He offers a resume that describes a career rich in achievement in the field of technology.
At every appearance, he points out that he was born into a family with an illustrious political history.
And no one, least of all his rivals in the GOP race, can any longer question Robertson's skills as a political organizer. He beat Vice President George Bush and Rep. Jack Kemp in Michigan last summer in a test that may assure him a victory when the first delegates are chosen in January for the 1988 Republican National Convention.
Two weeks ago, the conservative Robertson stunned his rivals by finishing first in a straw ball at a GOP fund-raiser in Iowa, easily outpollting Senate GOP leader Bob Dole. Bush finished third and Kemp fourth.
He has conceded on many occasions that for his quest to succeed, he must overcome a widespread averagement and the entry of clergymen into politics.
Robertson declared his candidacy for the presidency Thursday with a speech from the steps of the house in the Bedford Stuyvesant district of New York City where he and his wife, Dede, lived briefly 27 years ago.
There is an antipathy of the
American people to the involvement of the clergy in politics, especially for clergy to tell people how to vote," he told reporters more than a year ago
The effort to get that second look includes commercials running in South Carolina that urge voters to attend the debate, uniquely qualified to be president.
Born March 22, 1930, in Lexington, Va., Robertson now distributes a five-page resume that points out that his father, A. Willis Robertson, served 20 years in the Senate and that his ancestors also include Presidents Benjamin Harrison and William Henry Harrison.
Under "Business Achievements," his resume says that with initial capital of $70, Robertson created a complex of companies that include the Christian Broadcasting Company, "America's fifth largest cable network with 32 million homes connected." Robertson has stepped aside from his role as host of CBN's popular "100 Club."
An earlier version of the resume listed "graduate study, University of London, London, England, 1950." The later version says he "studied briefly at the University of London," a course which his study was a course in British art and architecture offered primarily to American students.
Robertson's service in the Marine Corps is also a matter of dispute.
McCloskey, who sailed to Korea on a troop ship with Robertson, alleged that Robertson told fellow Marines that he called his father from Japan and arranged to be taken off the vessel.
Robertson is suing former Rep. Pete McCloskey, R-Calif., for libel because of an Aug. 4, 1986, letter written by McCloskey in which he charges that Robertson used the political influence of his late father to avoid combat duty in the Korean War.
March 8 — the busiest day of the 1988 primary season — has been set as the trial date for the case in which
Robertson is asking $35 million in damages.
Robertson announced his candidacy at Bedford Stuyvesant, a black neighborhood where he and his wife worked among the poor, which is vividly described in his autobiography, "Shout It from the Housetops."
The chapter is entitled "Rats, Roaches and Bedbugs," and describes Classan Avenue as a street littered with "battered furniture, broken bottles and assorted trash . . . blacks and Puerto Ricans were living five or 10 to a room in indescribable squolar."
Robertson went on to describe how he was considering whether to buy the house next door and convert it into a mission.
He prayed for guidance and immediately a chapter and verse of the Bible came to his mind. When he looked it up is read "neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place."
He rushed to his wife and told her joyfully, "God just gave it to me. He doesn't want us to stay in this place."
Their next stop was Portsmouth,
Venice bought a struggling
television station.
When he needed a new transmitter to enable the station to reach a larger audience, once again he prayed for help. As he would later tell the story, God answered and told him to buy an RCA transmitter.
"That's just been way overblown," the television evangelist said when asked about the transmitter during an interview at his campaign headquarters. Conversations with God are a part of his background he now tries to de-emphasize.
"I don't recall ever saying God get an RCA transmitter," he addd.
But on page 181 of his autobiography, Robertson wrote that "as I was praying before God the next week, he asked me if I did not you to have an RCA transmitter."
'I sat straight up. 'Lord, we can't even raise $11,000.' The RCA trans-
Pat Robertson
mutter is the most expensive on the market! Where will we get the $19.000 to buy one?
" 'Wait on me, be faithful to your calling, and I will provide,' the familiar voice in my heart said."
Robertson is quick to point out that many American political leaders have sought guidance from God, and Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.
He gave the Bakkers, now embroiled in a sex scandal and toppled from their PTL ministry, their start in television evangelism as hosts of a puppet show on CBN years ago.
The Bakker scandal hurt other ministries, including Robertson's, and he was forced to lay off hundreds of employees when donations dropped.
But Robertson said his political fund-raising was never hurt, and he claims to have raised and spent $10 million thus far on his presidential bid, an amount that would put him on a financial par with GOP front-runner George Bush.
Donald M. Rothberg is a political writer for the The Associated Press.
Full mouth
As a native of a small town in south-central Kansas (and proud of the fact), I was particularly galled by Jon Gregor's column claiming that there is nothing to get excited about in this state.
I would simply like to remind him of a few things about his beloved Colorado that he failed to mention.
First, most of eastern and southern Colorado is just as flat as western Kansas. You have to drive a considerable distance in Colorado before you even see the Rockies through the Denver
Second, Gary Hart(pence) moved from Kansas to Colorado. This is a particular source of pride for many Kansans.
Third, we have Larry Brown and Danny Manning.
Mr. Gregor, I respect your right to express
your opinion. However, I would also like to remind you of a saying that we dull, boring hicks like to use: If you don't like farmers, don't talk with your mouth full.
John Dalke, Hillsboro graduate student
Free to leave
In re:ards to the column by Jon Gregor about what a boring state Kansas is, it is a free country and no one is making him "linger" in Kansas one minute longer than he chooses.
Michael Grothusen, St. Joseph, Mo., senior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed