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Kansan
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4A
Friday, November 13, 1998
Editorials
Gingrich's decision to step down was good for Republicans, country
Since the Republican party gained a majority in the United States Congress four years ago, Newt Gingrich arguably has been one of the most powerful and influential men in the United States.
Nonetheless, Gingrich made the right decision last week when he decided to resign his position as Speaker of the House and his seat in the House of Representatives.
In his 20-year career in the House, Gingrich made his name as an outspoken and often brash apostle of conservatism, a rarity in that he served as a Republican from Georgia, a historically Democratic state. Gingrich received national attention by lambasting the Democratic Party and forming the Conservative Opportunity Society to oppose welfare. He continued to move up the Republican Party ladder and pulled off his biggest coup by helping bring down former House Speaker Jim Wright on ethics charges.
As an American icon of everything wrong with politics, the former Speaker needs to go.
But it is the 1994 Republican Revolution that helped Gingrich reach his political peak. After Republicans won 52 seats that year promising a Contract With America, Gingrich won the House leadership.
But much like the eventual decline in the Republican congressional majority, Gingrich's public image continued to plummet. Like
Wright, he admitted guilt to ethics charges and paid a $300,000 fine. He also is partly to blame for failing to prevent the costly government shutdown late in 1995.
Gingrich's decision certainly will benefit the increasingly splintered Republican Party. Judging by the shrinking Republican majority, he had become much more of a liability than an asset.
But more importantly, his departure should benefit the United States. To many, Gingrich was the most recognizable embodiment of all that is wrong with contemporary American politics: unethical, devious and partisan rather than representative. Hopefully his absence will reduce the profound amount of public aversion to government.
Chris Borniger for the editorial board
Capital punishment not appropriate
As the debate about the pending execution of award-winning Pennsylvania journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal intensifies, the state of Kansas should examine, and change, its position regarding capital punishment.
Abu-Jamal has been on death row since 1981, when he was convicted of shooting a Philadelphia police officer. However, whether he is truly guilty continues to remain an issue of debate.
Some Pennsylvania media sources and several human rights agencies, including Amnesty International, have raised questions regarding jury tampering and racial prejudices in Abu-Jamal's trial.
Pennsylvania case raises questions about the death penalty in Kansas.
An international organization of Abu-Jamal supporters have called this former Black Panther Party organizer a political prisoner. He even has been declared an honorary citizen of several European cities.
Whether Abu-Jamal's trial was tampered with will be decided within weeks in a federal court, when his final appeal is heard. But the question that this issue should raise at the University of Kansas is how capital punishment can be justified.
Assuming that all those on death row are guilty, where does Kansas draw the authority to execute them? How can a government condemn killing and then kill the condemned?
Life sentences punish those convicted of murder for their entire lives and do not leave blood on the hands of the state.
Abu-Jamal's situation is typical of every inmate sitting on death row
his only is being played out or grander scale. The state of Pennsylvania presses for his execution, while thousands of protesters around the world, including a contingent of students in Lawrence, call for his release.
Kansan staff
Ronnie Wachter for the editorial board
Ann Premer . *Editorial*
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
“I recommend you take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.” — Chesterfield
How to submit letters and guest columns
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and home-town if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
Guest columns? Should be double-
spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
Perspective
Matt James
Guest Columnist
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stuafier-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Ann Prerepremer@kansan.com or Tim Harrington (tharrington@kansan.com) at 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, email the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
It seems like advice comes from every direction when you're first starting college. People I barely knew, who had no interest in my life up to that point, came
Advice for breaking bad news to parents
from all corners of the globe to bestow their experience-laden knowledge on me as I made parole and escaped the bars of my high school institution a few years ago.
What college to attend, how to study correctly, what to major in? Everyone seemed to have the right answers. I'm sure that this year's freshmen are still reeling from the onslaught of wisdom that has been freshly thrust
upon them. So if there's an empty corner left up in the oil' memory bank, let me cram a little free advice of my own in there; advice that you can actually use. And even if it's been years since you've fallen under the dreaded freshman label, this still could come in handy.
I've recently caught myself glancing at the calendar, dreading the approach of Thanksgiving because I will see my parents for the first time since the Fourth of July, and I will have to explain to them why their son, the senior, has dropped Spanish — again. I would normally go with the "it was like my teacher was speaking a whole other language" comic-relief excuse, but this semester I'm pulling out all the stops.
Here's how you amateurs are going to get it done. Whatever happens, don't wait until Christmas break to tell them bad news. Do you really want to spend an entire month getting the "we raised you better than that" look? I didn't think so.
It has occurred to me, though, that I might not be the only KU student whose parents are in for some holiday surprises. So for all of you out there, especially freshman — who are stressing about how to explain a butterfly tattoo, a new smoking habit, or a GPA that could only be a 4.0 if you moved the decimal point one place to the right — take notes from the master.
Admittedly, this will be tougher for those of you whose parents still have expectations and hopes for your success. Mine are probably waiting in eager anticipation for how their oldest college student will break this semester's blunder to them. And yes, you guessed it, my parents get the Kansan and my work is done.
And don't wait until the entire family is sitting down to Thanksgiving Dinner to show off your newly pierced navel. That isn't news that should be sprung on your dad while he is holding a carving knife.
Do something you should have done years ago - lower their expectations. Don't waste your time attempting to cloud the issue with how many friends you've made in the first semester or that story about how you wooled the most gorgeous sorority girl with half your charm tied behind your back. That will just infuriate them further. Besides, every one knows that story is made up. Your dad probably has the same story from when he was in school.
The best way to prepare them for bad news is to make them think something much worse is coming. In the next few weeks when you're on the phone with your parents, slip in a question about whether a DUI is a felony or misdemeanor or if Planned Parenthood is free. When the bad news is that you're only on academic probation, they'll be meeting you at the door with turkey, stuffing and huts of joy.
But if all else fails and the wrath of parental disappointment is inevitable, just ask to see their college transcripts. Understanding and support will be there in no time.
Beating yourself up over mistakes achieves nothing. Life is much easier when you relax and start enjoying it. Besides, you've got all new and exciting screw-ups to be working on.
I have experience in the mistake-explaining field that warrants a Ph.D. My parents still claim me even though I once bought a motorcycle with a student loan. So don't fight it. Let a professional lead you down the
road of mediocrity.
James is a Hugoton senior in journalism.
W within the next few months journalist, activist, and State of Pennsylvania death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal will have his death warrant
Unjust conviction could lead to wrongful execution
Abu-Jamal will have in signed. This is the result of a 1982 case in which he was convicted of the first-degree murder of Philadelphia police officer Dan Faulkner.
In response to this, a Lawrence-based activist group, tentatively called the Mumia Committee, has formed to protest this decision. In doing so, they join Amnesty International, South Africa's African National Congress, the European Par-
political organizations. How and why did this man's case become so widely contested? This largely hidden episode in American history started in 1981 when Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was carrying a legally registered gun, and his brother were pulled over by Faulkner. Not long after this, Philadelphia police were responding to a call that a fellow officer had been shot—perhaps fatally. Police arrived on the scene to find Faulkner and African-American Abu-Jamal both shot and near death. According to witness Sharon Smith, the police then began to viciously beat and kick Abu-Jamal, threatening to kill him and shouting racial slurs.
Erik Goodman
Guest Columnist
liament and numerous other international political organizations. How and why did this man's case become so widely contested?
Despite this attack and a delay in getting Abu-Jamal to a hospital, which is widely thought to be an attempt by the police to allow him to bleed to death, Mumia lived. That night in the hospital, the Philadelphia police began to build their case. They claim that Abu-Jamal stood over Faukker and loudly confessed his guilt.
Contradicting this, however, is that none of the hospital workers trying to revive Faulkner remember this happening. Also, the officer specifically assigned to stay with Abu-Jamal repeatedly stated, "the negro male said nothing." The most damning evidence against this "confession," however, can be taken from the fact that Abu-Jamal was unconscious at the time.
When Abu-Jamal finally awoke, he found a police officer standing on the medical bag he now needed to urinate, in an apparent attempt to burst his bladder. This and his beating led Abu-Jamal to file police brutality charges. Only then did officer Gary Wakshul, the one who had reported that Abu-Jamal said nothing, state that Mumia had confessed. Though Wakshul's late change of story could have been vital to
During the trial, the prosecution's stal witnesses were two prostitutes and a convicted arsonist who was driving a taxi without a permit (jurors were not told of his legal status). All three of them testified that they had seen Abu-Jamal shoot Faulkner. All three of them also later recanted their testimony, claiming that they had been intimidated and told to lie by the police in exchange for legal favors. Another man, William Singletary, testified that he had seen a man other than Abu-Jamal shoot Faulkner, but that police officers told him he would not be released until he signed a document accusing Abu-Jamal.
In fact, Singletary testified that Abu-Jamal had actually tried to help Faulkner, and that he was mistakenly shot by the officer when he bent over to reach him (this is consistent with the angle from which Abu-Jamal was shot). A man named Dessie Hightower backed Singletary's testimony and passed a lie detector test while doing so. The fact that Hightower passed this test (he was the only witness given one) was not shown to the defense.
In addition, no test was performed on Abu-Jamal to see if he had fired his gun or to see if his gun was fired. The case's medical examiner did state, though, that he thought Faulkner was shot with a larger caliber gun than the one Mumia owned.
At the beginning of the case, Mumia's defense attorney told the court that he was unprepared to try the case and did not have sufficient funds for expert witnesses. Despite this, Judge Albert Sabo, who was already known as "the hanging judge," ruled that the case should go forward.
Nonetheless, Abu-Jamal was found guilty. Since then, South African President Nelson Mandela, a former German Prime Minister, an International Tribunal of judges and numerous others throughout the world have denounced Abu-Jamal's conviction as racist and in violation of human rights. They have asked people to take action for Abu-Jamal. I write this to ask the same. His case has recently been upheld, and the date of his execution is to be decided within the next 90 days.
Abu-Jamal's defense, he was sent on "vacation" during the following trial and was not made available to testify.
Abu-Jamal recently stated that nothing can make an innocent man guilty. He is correct, but unless this nation takes action a man who may be innocent will also be one who is executed.
Goodman is a Beaver Creek, Ohio, junior in political science and Mumia Committee member.